By 
By Paul Moore
How is it that the toys other people have are always better than those you have yourself?
This phenomenon starts in childhood and, if my experience is common, continues into adulthood with the continual coveting of the things others have even though one knows they may be doing exactly the same with you and your possessions.
As a child I was not necessarily covetous of the toys other boys had, other than the odd Dinky car missing from my collection, but strangely there was one area where I was deeply envious of things girls had to play with. I should point out I am now at an age where I am happy to admit this. It has taken many years to get to that point. Do not believe any self-respecting male who claims he did not play with dolls as a child.
My cousin Sonja, whom I spent many hours in play with in childhood, was blessed with a weekly comic called ‘Bunty’. I did not care for the nonsense stories in the Bunty, after all I had the Victor comic, but there was one aspect which I watched with envy each week. Bunty had cut out figures and paper clothes which Sonja had to cut out and then dress the paper figures in paper garments, making the clothes attach with little tabs which you folded over the shoulder so the paper garment hung from the paper body.
I was never allowed to even cut these out never mind handle any of the garments.
As if this was not insult enough she then progressed from paper figures to having a Barbie doll and all the accoutrements which were needed to keep Barbie in the manner to which she had become accustomed. I, of course, pleaded to have an Action Man, a wish which for some reason mother never agreed to, although she did once give me an empty box and told me it was an Action Man deserter. I now cite the trauma of all of this as the reason I have such a tendency for style and clothing, and yes I do realise you would not know that to look at me.
So it was with much interest that I greeted the news this week that the toy manufacturer Mattel has just released an autistic Barbie doll. In some ways this is not surprising as the obsession many have with Barbie, young and old, surely has to relate to what is sometimes termed obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. It is also not surprising given the new understandings of neurodivergency, and indeed the doll was developed using insights from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network in the US. Apparently the doll features intentional design details such as a side-eye gaze and accessories like a fidget spinner, noise-cancelling headphones, and a communication tablet. While these aspects might be seen as stereotyping, I was also surprised to discover that there are other Barbie dolls addressing topics such as Down syndrome, type 1 diabetes and visual impairment.
A number of mothers have suggested that it is such an important thing for children to have play role models which represent them, but I am not sure what to make of it. The cynic in me wants to say it is merely another way for a multi-national company to increase sales and profits, but the utopian in me wants to believe it must be good to have diversity for those who navigate neurodiversity on a daily basis. I do know, however, that there is still an absence of male role representations with the claim, no doubt being that Action Man cannot possibly be neurodiverse. So once more all we can do is sit and look on with envy at the play of our female children.
