David, I studied ancient Chinese history (before going on to get a degree in Soviet Dissident Literature...only good for about 5 minutes after I graduated, but hey) and found everything about the culture and evolution fascinating.

Then got stumped on how one of (if not THE) most intelligent peoples on the planet could have indulged in the brutality of foot binding for 1,000 years. Not a couple of generations, but an eon. It still boggles my mind.

Anywhoo. Thanks for the reminder of how much fun that study was for me!

After a couple months of glue on nails, a few nails are long enough to be left alone. Now they are weak and ridged. I need product recs for helping them grow and get strong.

msbelle, Naitiques makes a kit especially for apres-artificial nails. I use their formula 2 when I'm not wearing polish and sometimes as an undercoat. I also use their soft files, which are kinder to peeling, thin nails than hard ones.

I am at the Denver Airport, sitting at a charging station, next to the most annoying man ever. No, not my husband.

Seriously, no one in public should ever answer their phone with a high-pitched "WHAT UP?"

msbelle! I got it! Thank you thank you! More in the appropriate thread. Also, my iPhone now autocompletes your name, which tickles me.

KBD says the same thing every time the Droid commercial comes on - "Get me that." Mind you, he's already got a phone that runs on Android, thanks to jailbreaking and endless reprogramming.

Then got stumped on how one of (if not THE) most intelligent peoples on the planet could have indulged in the brutality of foot binding for 1,000 years. Not a couple of generations, but an eon

t irony

Because that particular brutality was done to women rather than to people?

t /irony

Historically, our own cultures don't have a lot of standing to complain about brutality.

Historically, our own cultures don't have a lot of standing to complain about brutality.

In a certain way, this proves my point. I somehow thought better of the culture that invented pretty much everything.

And, yes, you are totally right, women, not people. But, let us not forget that it wasn't men who held little girls down and crushed the bones of their feet with wooden mallets. Women perpetuated the torture even as they, themselves, could not walk...were plagued by infection and pain and cleaved to a class structure that made it impossible to marry otherwise.

A lot of things go into that. Rebellion is NOT the common response to oppression. "Women not people" was not a view held only by men. Also this is the dark side of of small group solidarity. If there is a separate woman's culture, and there is a form of suffering all upper class women go through (especially one tied to a ritual) then it becomes part of the culture, part of becoming a woman. From the point of view of the women inflicting it, not binding the feet of the little girl would be to do her a horrible injustice , leave her forever a child, forever lower class.

I would imagine generations of women said something along the following line with absolute sincerity: "I went though this and, though there is pain sometimes, I am better for it. And it will be the same for you dear one. Don't I always do what's best for you? There's a good girl. "

I need product recs for helping them grow and get strong.

The Colombian stuff I got at my nail place really worked, but it's made of formaldehyde, so maybe you don't want that....

...so, I may have full-sized feet, but I do voluntarily put formaldehyde on my hands regularly.