Apparently foot binding is making a comeback in China snowbear66
www.ejinsight.com/20140930-foot-binding-revival-china/
If this research is correct then it was not to do with eroticism or status but was to keep girls and women still when they worked with their hands.
Bound Feet, Young Hands
Tracking the Demise of Footbinding in Village China
www.sup.org/books/title/?id=27024
Mothers are doing it to their daughters, mothers of an age when their own mothers were ashamed that their mothers had bound feet. Presumably persuaded by the "beauty myth", so not very different to mothers buying toe-pinching high heels for their children? . . . Or ballet "points"? I believe those are supposed to hurt like hell!
Anyway, I have bought the Douglas Murray "Madness of Crowds" book. (I wish there was a digital edition so I could zoom in to read.)
www.mailshop.co.uk/the-madness-of-crowds-by-author-douglas-murray.html
The references in the Mail Online Review to intersex conditions seemed reasonable. They were arguing that they are different to trans, have an uncontroversial biological basis yet are given relatively little attention compared to "gender identities". Not sure about the stats though - I always have to check back to Claire Graham's MRKH blog to remind myself of the figures for intersex conditions.
The book is not specifically about "trans issues" BTW.
The full title is, "The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity"
Description on publisher's website:
"The challenging and brilliantly-argued new book from the bestselling author of The Strange Death of Europe.
In his devastating new book The Madness of Crowds, Douglas Murray examines the twenty-first century's most divisive issues: sexuality, gender, technology and race. He reveals the astonishing new culture wars playing out in our workplaces, universities, schools and homes in the names of social justice, identity politics and intersectionality.
We are living through a postmodern era in which the grand narratives of religion and political ideology have collapsed. In their place have emerged a crusading desire to right perceived wrongs and a weaponization of identity, both accelerated by the new forms of social and news media. Narrow sets of interests now dominate the agenda as society becomes more and more tribal--and, as Murray shows, the casualties are mounting.
Readers of all political persuasions cannot afford to ignore Murray's masterfully argued and fiercely provocative book, in which he seeks to inject some sense into the discussion around this generation's most complicated issues. He ends with an impassioned call for free speech, shared common values and sanity in an age of mass hysteria."
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-madness-of-crowds-9781472959959/
There is a lengthy interview with Douglas Murray about the book here - on my "To Watch" list!