ASU expert praises new autistic Barbie doll
Mattel has launched an autistic Barbie doll (center, with headphones) as part of its Barbie Fashionistas collection, which features a range of skin tones, hair textures, body types, and various medical conditions and disabilities. Photo courtesy of Mattel Corporate
When Blair Braden heard that Mattel was launching its first autistic Barbie, she was intrigued.
Braden, an associate professor in the College of Health Solutions and director of the Autism and Brain Aging Laboratory at Arizona State University, knew from past experience that when pop culture meets autism, “sometimes they get it right, and sometimes they get it wrong.”
Braden, however, was encouraged when she read details of the doll, which has been in development for 18 months and was designed in conjunction with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), a nonprofit disability rights organization that aims to empower the autistic community.
ASU News talked with Braden about the doll and how it might resonate with autistic children.
Note: The interview has been edited lightly for clarity and brevity.
Question: Now that you’ve seen the doll and read about it, what’s your reaction to what Mattel has done?
Answer: I was very pleased to see that it seems very in line with the autistic community. They worked with a very well-respected group in ASAN. I love that it’s a Barbie and that it’s not a Ken — that it’s a woman. Because female representation in the autism community is definitely lacking, and there’s clinical biases toward males that need to be overcome. And I thought the doll’s individual characteristics really fit with a lot of the experiences of autistic people.
Q: We’ll get back to those characteristics. You mentioned that when pop culture meets autism there are times when the result isn’t what you would hope for. In what ways?
A: The autism community is so diverse, and so when any one character represents that community, there’s a risk for perception that that is the predominant or only way for autism to manifest.
I think one of the things that happened in the earlier years of autism in pop culture was this heavily leaning on a savant-type subtype of autistic person, like in the movie “Rain Man” (a 1988 film starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise). And that’s not the only autistic person. People like that exist, sure, but as time has gone one, we’ve gotten to see more, different types of autistic people.
Q: So, how did Mattel get it right with this Barbie?
A: So, you have headphones that lots of autistic people wear to feel more comfortable in different noise environments. She has this fidget spinner that lots of autistic people relate to as the desire to kind of experience movement. She has an augmented or alternative augmented communication device, which is not exactly about the sensory experience but more about differences in language.
And that one I was really impressed with because I think that speaks to people with autism ... who have more significant support needs. Some autistic people have very subtle differences in communication. Other autistic people have lots of differences in communication, and that device that she's holding is more representative of people with significant language differences, and it's not something that you necessarily see in other pop culture representations of autism.
We have her loose-fitting clothing that's oftentimes the preferred type of clothing, and movable joints to facilitate stimming movements (repetitive actions like hand-flapping, rocking, spinning, etc.) that's kind of similar to the fidget spinner, and then the slightly averted gaze. Lots of autistic people prefer not to look directly in the eye.
Q: You mentioned that you spoke with several people in your lab who are autistic. What did they think of the new doll?
A: One of them is very tapped into the online discourse of the pros and the cons out there. And one of the things that was important to her is that most of these features that make this Barbie autistic can be removed. So that really provides the opportunity to customize the doll to the autism features that one might align with more closely themselves. It also speaks against the idea that autism looks any certain way.
From what I've seen, they packed an impressive amount of details into one doll that really hits on a lot of experiences of autistic people (and) a lot of diversity of experiences of autistic people. And, you know, one of the things about autism, like any group of people, is there's so much uniqueness and diversity. And in autism specifically, we know it as a spectrum. So no one doll is going to capture everything about the autistic person.
Q: What do you think this Barbie will mean for families of autistic children and for the children themselves?
A: What so many of us strive for in our culture is for everyone to see themselves represented in pop culture. So, I think this is a huge move, especially for autistic girls who are so underrepresented. It just made my heart happy from seeing how far we’ve come from the extremely stigmatized experience of autistic kids and autistic families to having a doll that represents them. What a great leap in acceptance and celebration of the autistic person.
Q: What does it do for an autistic child specifically to see a bit of themselves in this doll?
A: I think that it makes them feel like who they are is valuable to society and not someone who is, you know, not in line (with the rest of society).
Q: Is it significant that this is Barbie, an iconic doll?
A: Absolutely. You hit the nail on the head. This is not a new toy trying to make space in American culture. This is an American culture doll making space for autism.
Steve Filmer contributed to this article.
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