Visual Femininity under the Male Gaze: Foot-binding Custom and Female Self-Censorship
Abstract
In the social aesthetic system based on patriarchy, the standards and shaping of femininity are usually closely related to the male gaze, which puts forward a series of requirements for the daily behavior norms of women as objects, including clothing, speech, and body shape. Under the long-term moral judgment and social monitoring, while bearing the pressure of aesthetic standards, women have gradually strengthened their self-control and censorship in terms of femininity. This study will take the custom of “female footbinding” in traditional Chinese society as an example, and analyze how men’s gazes contributed to the evolution of this aesthetic standard from the perspective of visual culture, and how women under the influence of this custom have strengthened their sense of self and even same-sex monitoring. The study found that patriarchal social norm constraints and objectified gaze strengthen women’s control over self-image, and women themselves form self-monitoring under the background of habitual pressure, which still affects modern women’s aesthetic self-evaluation today.
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