This poster features three image panels: high-heeled shoes, Chinese foot binding, and pointe ballet shoes. Chinese foot binding is an historical practice that involved tightly binding the feet of young girls to alter their shape and create “lotus feet”. Considered a symbol of status, delicacy, and femininity, this practice caused permanent disfigurement, chronic pain, and severe long-term health complications and is now banned. In this poster, it is compared with women’s high heels and pointe shoes, which remain socially accepted symbols of femininity and grace in Western cultures.

This poster is part of a four-poster series “Decoding Patriarchy” created by Daria Stermac in 1985.