Girls Using Walking Sticks

[Arran2024]

I saw a post about this on X this morning. Apparently it is a trend.

Anyway, I went into town this afternoon and sure enough, I saw a number of young women with walking sticks. None of them looked like they were leaning hard on their stick, just kind of walking along like it was a big umbrella.

Is anyone else seeing this?

So you only want comments that confirm your beliefs?

Surely we are allowed to point out that the trend might apply in the opposite direction , with disabled people finding comfort in bright colours and alternative hairstyles. Like @SilverSnaffles daughter. And my cousin.

And surely we are allowed to highlight that the very nature of invisible disabilities means that anyone claiming to "know" by looking at someone that they aren't disabled is making a problematic statement?

It's the lastest accessory of the local PIP crew who identify as work shy.

I tell you what I think does hurt women - not trans people, but the so called "gender critical" movement.
Not content with hurting women by policing their looks/ behaviour (eg "no woman would ever do/say that"and questioning those they don't believe look feminine enough) it's now disabled people getting the same treatment.
They've got purple hair, they're wearing dungarees. They're overweight.
It's not a trans idealogy it's real life PEOPLE, women who are getting hurt by this crap.

Exactly - only one opinion accepted. Anything else that doesn't confirm theirs, nope, can't be having that. Needs to be an echo chamber.

No, you're being asked not to derail the discussion.

Once again for the hard of thinking at the back: It's not about those who have a genuine disability, invisible or otherwise.

No, this is a discussion forum, and if you can't deal with discussion of the thread topic, don't like to be asked questions about it, or give explanations for your thinking, and don't want to see variant perspectives on the issue then it is probably not for you.

This forum has been one of the most cohesive on MN for many years, and often involves the most considered, reflective and thoughtful discussions on the topics for which is was created. It acts as a place of support, information and organisation.

If you want a support thread for chronic illnesses I'm sure there are better places. There are people who post here who do have chronic conditions but they don't tend to make them front and centre of discussions. Many of us are likley to have a chronic health condition or ailment ( i won't bore you with mine) which impacts our function to some extent...but that is not what the board is about.

It's not derailing the discussion, it's contributing to it. If you can't tolerate other perspectives it's not much of a discussion

How is it derailing for others to put their side across, @CassandraWebb put it well a couple of posts before this one.

But that's literally what the discussion is about. It's a bit much to police the thread to the point you only get voices that agree with your hypotheses

Irony. You commented on a post of mine earlier thus: “Sorry....you post makes no coherent sense whatsoever. You do seem to have an issue, though, with people talking about the trend for walking sticks; its over-lap with 'queer' identities and with self diagnosed mental health conditions”, indicating you thought I was shutting you down by giving my experience as a disabled person.

However, you’re now trying to actively stop people from talking on the thread?

It is not a hypothesis that lost of young people are now suffering from mental health conditions. it is an established fact and a phenomena that is currently widely commented upon in society; in parliament; in the media. Many of us know people who may fall into this demographic ourselves; or who are expressing in this way.

There also seems to be a link with with LGBTQ+ identities...... a link was provided earlier on from someone within this 'community' in which cross-overs between disability identiies and trans identities are quite common, and even nurtured. I'll post it again in case you missed it.

People in differnt parts of the country have noted an uptick in young women with walking aids. This is definitely a new phenomena which we exploring here. In an age of identity politics, identity labels and social media communities it is a most interesting phenomena...the roots of which are inevitably both subtle and complex...but are very much trends.

https://heatherhayes.com/the-power-of-canes-a-vital-tool-for-accessibility-and-visibility-in-the-transgender-community/

And none of that prevents us adding nuance to the discussion by highlighting that the picture is actually much more complex than that . And that in any such discussion it is important to acknowledge that you cannot tell by looking at someone, or spending brief patches of time with someone,.whether they are disabled or not.

It also doesn't mean we can't also talk about people who have become disabled and then adopted the colourful /dungaree type style

I don't choose that style, it isn't for me. But I do know very well two disabled people who deal with chronic pain who have gravitated to towards that style of dressing and hair. It's interesting to think why genuinely disabled people might choose to dress like that. Some posters on this thread have already tried to explain

Do you think, in order to claim PiP, one just turns up to the GP, points to a stick, and leaves with a bag of cash and a free car, no questions asked?

Only if you have bright coloured hair and dungarees apparently

Perhaps.

But that definition also covers conditions like mine, which is being diagnosed more because more antibodies have been found. It's absolutely not a new illness though, documentary records of it go back hundreds of years and are really interesting.

And the main treatment for it (pyridostigmine) was discovered by a female doctor in the early part of last century. And the story of her discovery is exactly the kind of fascinating feminism I love.

I struggled and hated myself for 20 years for fidning so many things hard (a cold would have me bed bound, standing in a queue would make me ill, commuting made me ill). Diagnosis hasn't made me more ill, in fact it's empowered me as now I understand the mechanics of my condition I can manage my life to live the best life I can with the condition.

It's curious that your take home from a website designed to destigmatise and speak to for people like me is to entrench deeper into the harmful stereotypes and indeed invent new ones.

And Myasthenia isn't a minor or trivial thing. On days I do too much I lose the ability to swallow safely. That causes a risk of aspiration pneumonia which in itself increases the risk of a Myasthenic Crisis -where breathing muscles stop working and you have to be intubated. 1/4 people with Myasthenia will experience at least one Myasthenic Crisis. I haven't yet thankfully but COVID did leave me so weak I was drowning in my own saliva at night which was terrifying

I went through a very drastic and sudden menopause at age 36.....and it was accompanied by what i thought were panic attacks, but which later turned out to be partial focal seizures. I would have them up to eight times a day.....sometimes In front of my class at school. I was a teacher. It had been an incredibly stressful time in my life. I think that is what led to the sudden and abrupt menopause and all of the above. But when you have children You just have to get on with it.

Accompanying the menopause you find that you have aching joints that you never had before, and that your body cannot cope with fluctuations in temperature very well, especially hot conditions. All sorts of effects.With time you learn to accommodate these changes and factor them in to how you go about your life.

Some people seem to find it more difficult to do that than others. We all know of people who both have the same type of condition or ailment but who respond very differently to it. Some people will spend the day in bed with a cold. I know someone who spends lots of time on 'self nurture'; eats only organic food; buys lots of vitamins and supplements, and is not bashful about spending money on alternative remedies, treatments and therapies....but who also is one of the most unhealthy people I know, beset by conditions of all sorts.

Somehow everything in her life is expressed through illness, disease or some type of condition requiring assistance or support.

Charming, quite charming. Do you consider everybody who uses a mobility aid to be work shy or do you apply other qualifiers before labeling someone as a scrounger at first sight? Also, just a friendly reminder that PIP is a non means-tested benefit. One can work full time and still receive PIP.

We all know that PIP is much abused and can point to numerous examples of this abuse. Assessments, especially since covid, are far less stringent. There are many people claiming PIP for a condition that others also have but who don't claim for; and many of these people use that benefit to get a new car, with all of the tax, insurance and MOT paid for....and then their children, grandchildren or cousins drive them around instead as if they were their own vehicles.

Apparently 40% of PIP payments are now for people with mental health conditions, which, as has been discussed here, is a rapidly increasing phenomena amongst younger people.

That is who it was originally intended for, For those in work to enable them to continue in their employment. Those little Reliant Robins were typical of the sort of provision for disabled people who still wanted to be mobile and active in employment.

I’m really confused by this thread and why it’s in the feminism section. I have not seen any girls with walking sticks, I’ve never heard of pots.

It doesn't cross your mind that different bodies react differently to different things?

Some people with Myasthenia need regularly hospital stays /regular ventilation. I don't see that as caused by their different mindset, I see it as them having a different presentation of the disease.

I have to go to bed if I have a cold because my nerves stop sending messages to my muscles. I cannot will power myself through that. If I could I would. I have will powered my way through all sorts of other things. I've climbed to a very senior role at work despite my health issues and with two young children as well.

Your post says more about you than it does about anyone else and their health.

Ps I am going through menopause too. I am finding it quite easy. Does that mean I just have a better mindset than someone who found it hard? Or maybe just maybe it means that my body is going through menopause differently from their ...