According to one of several versions of the story, the Chinese fetish for foot-binding (pictured, above), designed literally to keep women in their place, dates from the thirteenth century with the Empress Taki, who was born with a clubfoot. Her courtiers took to binding their own feet in cloth in imitation, and soon small, tightly bound designer feet became highly desirable in Chinese women, even though bound toes were likely to become gangrenous. Chinese husbands, meanwhile, encouraged foot-binding because their crippled wives were less likely to run off. Foot-binding was officially abolished by Chairman Mao in 1949.
