one of the ruler's (sorry, do not know which ruler) many wives had tiny feet (genetics not foot binding) this was his favorite wife, so the court women believed their daughters would have a higher status if their feet were small as well
thus, foot binding started
quite honestly, it was supposed to make women look pretty and be entirely useless when it came to them moving about
men apperantly like the thought that women could not get anywhere one their own feet, it made women seem vulnerable and in need of assistance (feet naturally are supposed to grow bigger as a person gets older so as to make balance possible; also the footbinding did not take into abound toenails, so as the woman grows, https://dzen.ru/ the toenails dig into her foot, making balance hard and walking painful)
