Foot-binding was the tradition of binding a young daughter's feet by wrapping cloth around their feet tightly and forcing them to walk until their bones broke and were easier to mold and change, then tightening the bindings as time progressed. The ideal foot (called Golden Lotus) was 3 Chinese inches (about 10 cm or 4 inches in Western measurements) in length. To understand this, the book draws the parallel: "Men in China feel about women's feet as men in west do about a woman's legs."