I have observed that a pigeon-toed gait is now endemic among intelligent young women (such as students).
A pigeon-toed gait means walking such that the toes of the feet are turned-inwards.
A sign of habitual pigeon-toed walking is that the inner part of a shoe heel will be worn more than the outer part - in more severe instances the outer part of the shoe sole, or even the upper of the shoe, will become worn.
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Being pigeon-toed used to be rare among adults - more common among children, most of whom grew out of it during their teens. It is regarded as a developmental disorder, caused by an inborn distortion of the leg or foot bones which becomes apparent in childhood (but which tended in the past to be self-correcting as the bones grew).
Being pigeon-toed is (almost certainly) dysfunctional on average - because human lower limbs are evolved to work best with straight or slightly out-pointing toes.
Yet I would estimate (from casual observation) that a high proportion of intelligent young English women in their late teens or early twenties (something between a quarter to a half perhaps?) now walk with a pigeon toed gait - all the time, with obviously worn inner heels.
This certainly was not the case thirty years ago.
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So what has happened?
At first I thought it was simply an affectation, a pose, a fashion - an attempt to look sexy in a gawky teenage kind of way. But now I am pretty sure it is developmental - starting in childhood but not self-correcting in the teens, as it used to be.
In fact, I have no idea what is going on!
My only notions (mere guesses) are maybe we are seeing some kind of dysgenic phenomenon which applies particularly to higher intelligence people (a side effect of assortative mating for some other trait, perhaps?); or that this is a kind of neoteny - of sustained immaturity, of carrying immature traits (characteristic of sexually immature childhood) into potentially-fertile adulthood.This would, again, have to be a side-effect of some other primary process - maybe a side effect of the generally neotenous trend in behaviour in modernizing societies -
http://www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton/psychological-neoteny.html
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But, really, I don't know. Any ideas?
14 comments:
Vitamin D deficiency? Advice to avoid the sun peaked in the 1970s-1980s when many of these women would have been young.
Dunno. But don't ask "scientists".
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100923/full/news.2010.489.html?s=news_rss
Fascinating.
Or, perhaps there is no change, and it is only that intelligent pigeon-toed young women are now valuing and using their intelligence differently than they did thirty years ago, and that is what you have noticed. Or not.
It would be good to know what percentage of adults are pigeon-toed, male vs. female, and lefty-righty. I suspect more lefties are pigeon-toed.
I blame those thongs (shoes). No one can walk normally in them. Everyone shuffles like a Japanese Geisha!
"What ever causes basal ganglion dysfunction might be environmental toxins of some sort..."
Aluminum, Fluoride, and the Brain
@basal - well, that is the *kind* of thing that might be relevant. But the timing of the epidemic is wrong, too recent, for aluminium and flouride exposure to be a plausible cause - at least that is my first impression.
Hi! I'm 18 years old, female, left-handed, and pigeon toed. So I may 'fit the bill' when it comes to your inquiry. I've always walked the way I do, and though most children grow out of it, I was one of the lucky few who didn't. Hah, lucky. That was sarcasm. The only time I walk "normally" is if I'm wearing a specific height of high heel, where most of my weight is on the balls of my feet. I'm not sure how it changes the alignment or what not, but I found it works. I wonder what the percentage is for adults who are legitimately pigeon toed, not faking? (some women turn their feet in to make themselves look cute or awkward...blah)
Hi! I'm 18 years old, female, left-handed, and pigeon toed. So I may 'fit the bill' when it comes to your inquiry. I've always walked the way I do, and though most children grow out of it, I was one of the lucky few who didn't. Hah, lucky. That was sarcasm. The only time I walk "normally" is if I'm wearing a specific height of high heel, where most of my weight is on the balls of my feet. I'm not sure how it changes the alignment or what not, but I found it works. I wonder what the percentage is for adults who are legitimately pigeon toed, not faking? (some women turn their feet in to make themselves look cute or awkward...blah)
I'd spotted that over the years - and wondered about it too - hence my finding your page. Did you come to any conclusions since your initial posting.
-Fran
@Fran - Not really. But I wonder whether it is symptomatic of an accumulation of deleterious genes due to relaxed natural selection - I also get a sense (anecdotally, I don't believe the 'official statistics' about cancer) that there may be more cancers among young and middle aged adults than there used to be - which might also fit with this. But still just a vague hunch.
I have also observed this and at the same time people who walk 10 to 2 are less intelligent than people who walk with almost straight feet.
I too have noticed this. It does not exist below age 7 at least here in the U.S. I have first hand observation in schools. My theory is at age 7-8 young girls unconsciously begin to mimic the portrayals of stars and models in the media. They stand in Lolita pose. They sit at their desks with their feet turned in and tucked under. It started about the same time that the Lolita pose came from Japan to the U.S. This is a time when bones and tissues are moving through development at a fast pace. Ballet dancers use this period to modify their hip orientation for better turn out. This pigeon toed epidemic seems to be the opposite effect. Once the hip and leg orientation is set in the tween years, it carries throughout adulthood.
I'm pretty sure that isn't the explanation - it is some kind of developmental disorder.
Hi, I'm pigeon toed and have been so for all my life, I came out of my mother with my feet and knees pointing inwards. It worsend when I was around 6 but have stayed the same since, i'm 27 now. I have a female cousin who also walk with her feet inwards so it might be genetic. I'm right handed and study. I guess that there are different reasons for people to be pigeon toed and differences in severity. I'm clumsy because my feet often hit each other and get pains in the joints if I don't walk/sit/or stand with my knees and feet pointing inwards, so it's not a choice to walk like this.
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