And often it would be a woman who was in her 70s or 80s who would win the beauty contest, because bound feet never age.

Summary

This quote encapsulates the cultural practice of binding feet in ancient China. The practice involved the painful and permanent binding of young girls' feet in order to reduce their size, as small feet were considered a symbol of beauty and femininity. By stating that older women would often win beauty contests because their bound feet remained small and untouched, the quote highlights the enduring physical effects of this practice, emphasizing how foot-binding perpetuated skewed beauty standards and placed value on an unchanging physical feature, even in old age.

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