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?

And while I'm at it... why the hell is this in a feminist thread? Obvs feminist principles dont apply if you are talking about disabled women.

There's a young woman with multicoloured hair (actually it's just blue the past few days) that walks past my house daily with a walking stick, not really touching the ground with it as she walks very fast and I guess touching the ground with it would slow her down. My sibling used to go to F.E. college with her and she was quite attention seeking there, the odd episode of weeping and wailing in class etc along with lots of other attention seeking behaviours. 'Issues', I'm assuming.

But you have no proof of this? Dont you realise you are demonising disabled people by saying stuff like this? There are real life consequences to saying stuff like this.

There definitely seems to be a bit more to it than just needing a mobility aid in some cases. I found an article on Google called "The power of canes" by somebody called Heather Hayes; I don't know anything about her but she was saying (not in a negative way) that canes have symbolic, performative value in the trans community as well as being merely practical. Sorry, I don't know how to make a link but if you Google the title and her name it should come up.

So my guess is that several things may be going on at once: an increase in mobility and related issues (eg balance) among younger people, due to long COVID etc; perhaps better diagnoses of invisible disabilities leading to more young people feeling that they don't have to struggle and hide their struggles; a tendency to visible emphasis of disability in particular subcultures; and (possibly) a bit of fashionable poor-me-ing on the back of all this by some people who want attention, because there are a few people who always do that sort of thing.

I also found a surprising number of adverts for rather nice fancy walking sticks of various kinds, there is obviously a big demand and if you need one, it needn't be boring!

I just hope that by the time any fashionable element of it dies away, it won't have had the effect of crying wolf and undermining the people who really need to use a stick, and that young people who need to do so will simply be accepted as doing what they have to do.

As a footnote: I didn't actually need a stick until recently (not as young as I was!) but even in my twenties I used to take one on country walks and when I went out alone at night. Not as a mobility aid, but as a third leg on rough terrain, a longer arm for reaching blackberries and (in case of emergencies) a harder fist.

@HopeMumsnet really disappointed that you've left the ableists comments on this thread. I've reported individual comments and I've seen deletions for things less offensive on other threads. You're not doing yourself any favours trying to dispel the rumours of this being an anti inclusive website. On a feminist board too!

Shocking that posters are coming on here and agreeing with them too. Let's hope none of you gets in a traffic accident that completely changes your life, and you have judgy people kicking you when you're down too.

Nobody is saying these conditions don't exist not that some people have lives horribly impacted by them. I have a physical disability and jade needed crutches in the past. We're also not saying any specific individual is making it up, we're talking about a population trend.

There is a move to identify into vulnerable groups, often these people feel like they are hard done by in general and are casting about for a reason or quick fix. They do latch on to these conditions with vague symptoms that are hard to diagnose. The main difference I've seen between genuinely disabled people are those who feel too fragile and need everyone to recognise it is the drive to get better, to do physio, take medications, push their boundaries. This group have their vulnerability as their whole identity, we can't pretend they don't exist and that there's overlap with other people choosing identities.

They've completely ruined support groups, making it all about wallowing and no reassurance. So it's not a good thing for people really needing help.

😂 This place is absolutely barking. What are you trying to imply?! Who are you imagining sitting away plotting new "trends" in some kind of cave, maybe stroking a white cat or something?
Come on, spit it out instead of just doing the ........
😂

Is this another phenomenon we are not allowed to notice without being called names. I do think there is a potential for harm here if young people start basing their whole identity around their various diagnoses and the rest of us are expected to pretend not to notice. We had to do that for years with trans and look where that got us.

Same. These people are to blame for so many accidents, suicides etc etc

I have no proof of what exactly? You didn't refer to which part of my post you're talking about.

What are you talking about ? Are you alright.

Nuh. We just have to accept some people have conditions that don't affect others and at the least not judge, even better show some compassion and help them partake in the rest of society. And that hidden disabilities being ignored and ridiculed is where the problems stem from.

it’s munchausens by proxy if someone is feigning their own injury or disability

-notable numbers of young women being diagnosed with medical conditions and needing walking aids
-notable numbers of young women self-diagnosing, or using walking aids for non-medical reasons
-general lack of education about disability in the wider general population

I'm sure we can all agree that all of these issues are concerning, and sometimes overlap.

If you are going to use fancy sounding terms you need to at least understand what they mean

Munchausens by Proxy is " a mental health disorder in which a caregiver creates the appearance of health problems in another person, typically their child."

If you for 100% sure definitely know someone who is playing at being disabled/making it up then for sure.

But this thread was started about judging people in the street, so people would have no idea if they’re genuine or not.

Then it progressed into saying people with various specific illnesses are just wanting to say they have those illnesses because they’re “trendy”. Again with no medical knowledge regarding these individuals. That’s the issue!

You are ill informed that isn't what you think it is.

How could you possibly know all these things?

oh, it’s the other one, got them mixed up. See NHS:

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/munchausen-syndrome/overview/

I am well aware what it is. It just annoys me what people use terms like "Munchausens by proxy" thinking they sound all fancy when it's clear they don't understand the words they are using at all

I make fancy wooden sticks and staffs so I hope this trend really takes off!

gosh I’m so sorry to have annoyed you. Jeez.

PIP stick?

No im not alright because I became disabled and now I nded to use a stick. The only time I ever feel depressed is when I am judged or side eyed or read threads like this. Im sure there are people at a low ebb who will see ableist threads like this and do themselves harm.

Or in my case I'm likely to try go without a stick because I cant deal with the agg, fall and seriously hurt myself.

For the record, I dont wear a sunflower lanyard or have green hair but so what if i did? I'm just a mum, in a professional job, trying to go about my day without exhausting myself and risking injury. And I dont claim benefits - in fact I have to shell out for shortfallings in the nhs.

Im so sick of the judgement and I'm so sick of people like you making excuses for behaviour like this. There are consequences and trying to do the classic mumsnet "are you ok?" is just so pathetic and teenage.

😂