Vanity and vexation

This is a matter which has puzzled me for some time.

Apparently there are obscure tribes out there containing people who do not wear, and have never worn, shoes of any kind. Their feet have toughened up and they are perfectly accustomed to running around barefoot all of their days. Accordingly, their feet have followed nature's course and end up growing far bigger than our 'civilised' feet, with the toes splayed wildly and the length quite beyond our average foot.

(I assume this is all true. It seems to be something I've heard many times and grew up believing. If this is not true, please enlighten me. At least it makes sense.)

So, it seems that by wearing shoes, our culture has imposed a certain limitation on nature, much like wearing corsets artificially (but how gracefully!) shaped the body in another era. This is so normal that we take it for granted. So why is it not wrong?

In China, foot-binding was part of the culture at one time, and very clearly involved mutilation and pain. Carried to excess, this obsession with a certain shape and size destroyed the health and greatly reduced the practical effectiveness of those on whom it was practised. Gladys Aylward, the famous missionary to China, was a heroine for rescuing little girls from this oppressive and destructive ritual.

So how does our modern culture differ? Merely in degree? How are we not practising some minor form of foot-binding simply by wearing shoes that contain and repress our feet?

I haven't worked it out yet. I am sure we're not intentionally doing anything wrong, but it's hard to see why not. Perhaps the motive has something to do with it, the fact that we wear shoes to protect our feet and get around and not solely to make our feet ridiculously small. After all, the smaller feet we end up with (as compared to the au natural obscure tribe's feet) are merely a side-effect and not a goal of wearing shoes. And yet, who hasn't at one time worn a shoe that wasn't quite the most efficient or practical in order to look good? See, vanity does have something to do with it.