With the aim of celebrating diversity and promoting inclusion, American toy giant Mattel has just launched a Barbie with autism, adding to the collection that includes Barbie with Down syndrome, a blind Barbie and a Barbie with type 1 diabetes .
According to the company, the aim is inclusion, but the initiative is rejected outright by journalist and writer Gianluca Nicoletti, father of an autistic boy, who considers it "extremely unfair" because "it sugarcoats reality and maintains stereotypes" .
The autistic Barbie has articulated elbows and wrists, unlike traditional Barbies, which allow her to perform “repetitive movements, clap her hands , and make other gestures that some members of the autistic community use to process sensory information or express excitement.”
The new Barbie dolls' eyes are slightly slanted to represent how some autistic people sometimes avoid direct eye contact. These dolls come with a sensory stress toy, noise-cancelling headphones, and a tablet modeled after the devices some autistic people with speech difficulties use to communicate, the company said, adding that it has committed to donating 1,000 dolls to American children's hospitals with autism-specific services.
The project was launched in collaboration with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network , an organization that advocates for the rights and better media representation of autistic people. The goal was "to create a Barbie that reflects some of the ways autistic people may experience and process the world around them," according to Mattel's official statement. The team also discussed at length whether to dress the doll in a tight-fitting or loose-fitting dress. Some autistic people wear loose-fitting clothes because they are sensitive to the seams of fabric, while others prefer clothes that follow the body's contours because this gives them a greater sense of their bodily boundaries. A-line dress with short sleeves and a flowing skirt was ultimately chosen.
"An extremely unfair, bordering on obscene" operation, commented Nicoletti, father of Tommy, an autistic boy . An operation that "softens reality and freezes stereotypes." According to Nicoletti,
