Cultures of Fetishism by Louise J. Kaplan

come to my body. Although I never talked about it with my mother, I was aware that my method of walking caused the outer folds of my vagina to rub against each other. * As husband-to-be watched me walk toward him, it was as if he could see through my satin pants. First eyes lit up; then a moment later

The walk that resulted from binding and its effects on the body and genital organs. From a Taiwanese doctor (Levy, 34). Ku Hung-ming, a scholar who advocated footbinding, describes the “wondrous” folds of the vagina. Levy (141). Buttocks full and large: Levy (151). General physiological effect: Levy (295–99).
    the corners of his lips curled into a smile of pleasure. As for me, his looks and the sensations between my thighs were telling me of the unspoken advan- tages of lotus feet. I took note of the long, lush pigtail that announced the sensual possibilities of my-husband-to-be.
    Later I learned that many men, my husband among them, believed that a woman whose thighs and hips undulated when she walked could also press her vagina forcefully during sexual intercourse, giving intense sensations to the man’s penis.
    But there was more to it than that. Soon after we were married my husband would begin to teach me the genuine value of diminutive feet. I actually didn’t do much walking about after I got married. I did so only when serving tea to my husband and his business friends. If I went into town, which I rarely did, I was carried about in a covered sedan chair. Most of the time, I spent the day at home, lolling about, reading, learning the lute, embroidering, trying out a new face powder or hair lacquer, while waiting for my husband’s return from his office. When I knew he was on his way, I would call my personal maid to dress me. My husband would greet me with his usual smile of pleasure. After dinner, he would carry me to bed.
    About three years after I married him, I found out that when my husband was a young man still in school he had begun to learn the ways of lotus feet from expensive prostitutes who all had golden lotuses, which they knew how to employ in golden ways. There is a difference between one lotus and another. The golden were said to be three inches or less. These were the kind I used to dream of as a child. Mine turned out to be somewhere between slightly more than three inches and yet not nearly four. They were called Silver Lotus. Those that were any longer than four and yet still in the shape of a lotus were Iron Lotus. Phoenix Head meant that the tip of the foot was small and pointed, like the head of a bird. New Moon was supposed to indi- cate that the tiny foot was encased in white silk stockings that enhanced its elegance and made it look as slender as a sliver of moon. Jade Bamboo Shoots, which is what my husband liked to call my tiny lotus, was a term of endearment meaning that the foot was warm and glossy-white and soft as jade with a tip as pointed as a bamboo shoot. 18
    The tiny foot, in its flesh, personified the beauty of the entire body. It glistened like the white skin, it was arched like the eyebrows, pointed like the jade fingers, rounded like the breasts, small like the mouth, and when worn with the red embroidered shoes it was like the lips. Since the foot was hidden away it was enigmatic, like the vagina, the clitoris, the vulva, and all the private inner parts of a woman’s body. The odor was more delicious than the armpits, legs, or vagina and also more seductive because a man could put the tiny foot all the way into his mouth. 19
    There were many ways to caress a lotus that would arouse the man, but if he was a gentle and sensitive man these gestures could carry the excitements to the woman’s body, arousing her to peaks of exquisite joy. My husband’s arousal depended very much on his ability to bring these sensuous excite- ments to me. He was not like some other husbands of the time who cared
    only for his own pleasures and might have three or four wives who he wanted to