Here is an interesting article i found....
The practice of foot binding began in the Sung Dynasty, sometime between 960-976 BC. It is reported that a prince had a concubine who was required to dance with her feet bound. The prince forced his concubine to dance with bound feet because he had a fetish with tiny feet. This caused traditional family values to dictate that the feet of young girls should be bound to keep them small. The term "Lily feet" was used to describe the tiny feet because they were thought to be very beautiful and a symbol of gentility and high-class.
The actual foot binding process began when a girl was between the ages of three and eleven years old. First the inner foot of the child was washed in hot water and then massaged. Then all of the toes, except the first toe, were broken, turned under, pressed to the bottom of the foot, and bound tightly with cloth strips which kept the feet from growing larger than ten centimeters or three point nine inches. Next, the arches were broken as the foot was pulled straight with the leg. The cloth bandages would be tightly wound around the foot from the toes to the ankle to hold the toes in place.
After about two or three years, the child’s feet actually shrank to the point that they could fit into shoes that were only three inches long. These tiny shoes, which were called "lotus shoes", were made of silk and were decorated with beautiful embroidery. The results of the foot binding were highly deformed feet that were extremely painful to walk on. Many times, the toes actually fell off because the bandages were wrapped so tight that blood could no longer reach them.
The purpose of foot binding was to identify women of high-class, and to keep a woman from "wandering". The bound feet kept control over the women because the pain was so intense that they could not even walk short distances without assistance. In the upper class of China, a good marriage would be impossible to arrange if the girl did not have small feet.
The practice of foot binding lasted far over one thousand years until the Manchu Dynasty was toppled in 1911 and the New Republic was formed. It was at this time that foot binding was outlawed.
Foot binding mangles the feet of these people, and causes many other disabilities. The University of California San Francisco did a study that looked at the "prevalence and consequences" of foot binding, and how it was linked to osteoporosis in China. The study included women from the ages of seventy to one hundred. Of those women studied, the ones that had had their feet bound were thirty eight percent more likely to suffer from a fall than those who never had their feet bound. The study also discovered that the women with bound feet had a 5.1 percent lower hip bone density and a four point seven percent lower spine bone density than women with normal feet, putting them at greater risk of suffering hip or spine fractions.
men’s world 
This was a ritual, a ceremonial practice and a way to establish true womanhood in the Traditional Chinese culture this was known as foot binding. This was the act of wrapping a young girl’s foot so tightly the bone structure of her foot would be distorted. Foot binding dates back to as early as the Sung dynasty, and started with palace dancers who were among the elite in China at the time and needed to have their feet bound more then others for dancing[1]. As time went on the binding increased in severity, it also became more widespread in society. It eventually spread through most levels of the Chinese but was first seen in the upper class women. With wrapped feet women could not walk around much, so working in the fields was not an option for the woman with this done, which is why the poor did not partake in this until later because society thought that they should be working in the fields[2]. Foot binding was a way to claim women hood, it made a statement to men and is now viewed as cruelty in society.
After a woman gives birth to a girl and before they started the binding process the mothers would create an elegant pair of tiny shoes. She would take the shoes to an alter, in which a ceremony was held and hung the slippers to make them look like they were sent down from heaven[3]. The binding practice would begin at the age of five or six. Their feet were tightly wrapped in bandages, which curled the toes toward the heels. This would eventually break the bones in the foot and cause it to grow defectively[4]. After a young girl had her feet wrapped for a long period of time the mature foot would only grow to be three to four inches long, with the heels and toes almost meeting. This caused women to have a limp in their walk. These small feet were known as “Golden Lotus” they were praised and written about in poetry[5]. Korean and Manchu ladies under Chinese influence also strove to achieve feet smaller then the norm. This distinguished evidence that set the aristocratic ladies apart from the plebeian class. More women were following this practice because it was viewed as a proper ritual. The Chinese may have emphasized this to make a clear cultural distinction in their society.
Men were very attractive to this foot binding practice. This had a physical influence on the women’s body, which pleased the men. Women swayed when they walked, her buttocks became larger, and the lower part of the body was in tension, which caused the skin of her legs and vagina to become tighter. These are reasons that attracted male attention. One reason to why women did this in China was simply to please the men. It gave women a sense of powerlessness and the need for male protection.
Today Foot binding has been abolished. It ended in 1911 when the Chinese Republic banned it. These customs though have left many elderly women in modern China with severe life-long disabilities. UCSF did a study and was the first to look at the consequences of foot binding (Chinese Foot Binding - Lotus Shoes). They found that women of eighty years or older were more likely to have fallen and were less able to rise from a chair without assistance as well as less able to squat which is an ability that is important in everyday life. Many of these women stay indoors and are not seen out on the streets, even today. Today it would be unusual to see a woman with bound feet because they are mostly homebound. This practice ceased with the end of the imperial dynasties and increasing western influence of fashion. “The deformities of foot binding linger on as a common cause of disability in elderly Chinese women today” (Chinese Foot Binding - Lotus Shoes).
Foot binding made a woman a real woman in traditional China, and today it is looked at as a cruelty. Men thought this made a woman very attractive when she had this done to her. It ensured a women’s place in the home and made it hard for her to walk anywhere. Binding and pain were used together in traditional times, a women suffered willingly to please men. This ritual was important in shaping China’s history; it represented a culture distinction from the rest of East Asia.
the europeans followed this procedure aswell.. in the boroque-rococo period 
way after the chinks tho
I thought this was a fashion and beauty forum
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by KAKA-ATOM-BUM: *
i think for them its considered beautiful or something.
[/QUOTE]
I thought so too...
kewwwwwllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll