Extremely Delayed Last Post

This subject matter may seem rather unoriginal given that the majority of my blog posts have been about something having to do with foot binding, but I have been thinking a lot about societies views effect how women alter themselves. This kind of stems off of my other blog posts about how society somewhat controls how women value their appearance and others opinions on their appearance. However, this blog will be focused on the aspect of size and how size has been and is becoming more and more important to women. Foot binding is of course what made me think of this. Japanese women bound their feet because smaller feet were thought to be more delicate and beautiful than normal sized feet. I was reading through Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and came to the now quite obvious realization that this size obsessed, "small is better" phenomenon has continued through time to play a major role in most 21st century societies today. Women are constantly going to the gym to lose weight, watching their carbs because they'd like to lose ten pounds, eating only salads for a weeks so that they can fit into those size 00 jeans. According to todays societal standards, women are supposed to have small legs, small waist, big breasts and a big butt. Where these exact standards came from, no one knows, but they somehow came into existence and now they have stuck.

Somehow, a woman's personality has somehow become irrelevant in comparison to her looks. While yes it is natural to analyze someones appearance first when never having met them before, this appearance focused judgment continues even if one is acquainted previously. While the world is has improved in great strides in these modern times, some values have been sorely lost, like the appreciation of someones true beauty under the skin surface, no matter the size.