User:Dufaulte/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Foot binding

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose this article because it is an important topic in our class and I wanted to understand the custom of foot binding. Foot binding matters because it was a women's custom that ended up defining her social status and later become a symbol of China's backwardness to the West. My preliminary impression of the article was that it was very thorough.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

The article has a good lead section. The content section covers a wide range of history concerning foot binding and even has a section specifically on views and interpretations of foot binding. However, this section should also go further into how men and local officials worked to stop foot binding but women actually protested it. Not all women were feminists. The article could also go into how foot binding was a class status more, not necessarily for beauty reasons or male attraction. Furthermore, women did work more than just light industry with bound feet- there feet binding might have just started later or not been to the extent of upper class women. While some of this is included in the other interpretations section, I think more needs to be added to it to make the article more neutral. The references were good and worked when I clicked on them. It was easy to read and the sections were split nicely. There were many images and all were clear. The majority of the talk page discusses biases in the page. Assertions this was violence against women and other modern feminists thoughts on this practice seemed to have crept into the page and needed to be removed. It is rated B-class of mid-importance. Under the B-rating, "A few aspects of content and style need to be addressed. Expert knowledge may be needed. The inclusion of supporting materials should be considered if practical, and the article checked for general compliance." I think that the article is well devolped but needs more information on how the practice was viewed before 1900.