If you think back to the past and then think about how far women have come, our current issues seem so trivial. Women (in most countries) now have equal rights in the workplace and government rules that protect women. Although the concept of the price of beauty and status is the same, you’ve got to look decades behind to the country of China where women used to bind their feet to secure a good future.

Status is everything. It was important then and it’s still as coveted for now. Neatorama wrote an insightful piece about the mysterious long forgotten practice of foot binding that everyone should read about. Warning though, some pictures look painful.

Read all about it at Neatorama.