What passes for feminine beauty tends to reflect the dominant class standards of society. […] In feudal China the mutilation by foot binding transformed upper-class women into class commodities, who would have neither the capacity nor the need to walk, because they were served by others. A luxury, by the way, that was not available to the peasant women, who worked in the fields. When you hear the phrase “Oh, Chinese women used to have their foot binded”, that’s not true, I mean, it’s a very small percentage in the landlord class who did. Chinese women who were breaking their backs in the fields never had that grotesque luxury. At the turn of the century pale skin […] was a sign of your class elevation. Women went out in parasol, they wore gloves, they wore broad rimmed hats. To be out in the sun was something you didn’t want to do. Who could afford not to be out in the sun? It was those people who didn’t work in the fields […]. That was a sign of upper class beauty. Later on being out in the sun became something of the playing traits of the rich and famous. They’re boating and they’re traveling and all this sort of thing. Suddenly, […] having a sun tan in the middle of December became the thing to have and people who used to not be out in the sun were now faking it themselves.
Michael Parenti, The Political Economy of Gender Oppression.
Thinking about how my great-grandma had bound feet so by the 20th century, I guess, it was indeed a “luxury” afforded by the lower classes.