Why was the practice of foot-binding so popular?

Of course, there is no way to know for sure why this
practice became popular with so many Chinese.  But, to me, there are two major
reasons.

First, I think it is because this was such a
male-dominated society.  Men could pretty much tell women what to do and so they could
force them to have this rather painful thing done.

Second,
I think that the bound feet somehow became a status symbol.  If your wife had feet like
that, it showed that you did not need her to work -- you could afford to have her unable
to do much but sit around.

Neither of these explain why the
practice started in the first place, but they do help to explain why it could come to be
done by so many people.