Reading about the ancient Chinese tradition of foot binding in Dorothy Ko's article made me wonder whether the Western world is qualified to make judgments on a foreign culture. Personally I don't agree with foot binding since it basically cripples the person, but the women who were "subjected to the treatment" were often proud of the size of their feet post-procedure. The popularity of foot binding could be called, as Abu-Lughod mentioned in her article, a "tyranny of fashion" (786). And yet I don't think Americans should be so hasty as to declaim foot binding as a barbaric, cruel and unusual form of punishment when here there are equally odd practices of injecting one's face with botulism toxins and chopping off perfectly healthy bits of oneself in order to fit a culturally idealized form.