On the subject of Plushie Dreadfuls (warning for anti-autistic ableism)
So, Plushie Dreadful’s most beloved plush; their Gender Dysphoria Rabbit; often makes the rounds on here! It looks like this:
(ID: an image of a plush toy against a white background. It’s a white rabbit sitting on a gray box. It has blue and pink details, and the trans symbol on its chest. It seems to be designed to appear scratched up and messy. End ID.)
A lot of people really love this design and the posts featuring it get a lot of notes!
Plushie Dreadfuls are a line of plushies based and themed off of a multitude of things. These things include gender and sexuality, emotions, and disorders. These designs are very cute and charming, which is why what I’m about to tell you is frustrating.
Plushie Dreadfuls, as the plushies can be based off of disorders, have a plushie for autism spectrum disorder. It looks like this!
(ID: a plush rabbit toy, a bag, and a blue pop-it stim toy against a white background. The bag is a tote bag, and it appears to say, ‘respect the full spectrum’, and ‘hope’. The pop-it is rabbit-shaped. The plush rabbit toy has a blue infinity symbol on its belly, and the insides of its ears have a checkered pattern. End ID.)
This is the Hope Rabbit! This rabbit is cute, and I have little to no issues with it in terms of design. The infinity symbol being blue wasn’t the best choice, but I understand that it likely was simply made that color to go with the rest of the design. It would have been better to go with another color, but hey. I’m willing to go easy on that aspect because all Plushie Dreadful designs are made by people with direct experience, as it says via their website. This particular design was created by an actually autistic woman!
It’s in the official description of the plush where I find issues. First, they describe it as ‘for Autism Awareness Month’, which is a minor mistake that I can easily let slide. However, the official description of this item also states, quote, “10% of the proceeds go to the A.E. Wood Foundation when you purchase a Hope Rabbit from the Mysterious Shop.”
As much as one small Google search will tell you that A.E. Wood Foundation preforms autistic behavioral therapy. Autistic behavioral therapy is abuse and torture of autistic people, in order to make them act more ‘normal’. This is where the plushie’s use of the infinity symbol becomes infuriating. The infinity symbol is the symbol of autism acceptance. If they did research into it, they would know this. Autism acceptance; what the infinity symbol stands for; and ABA which forces autistic children to conform to allistic standards cannot coexist. They are opposites.
“So what can I do?”
- Please do not buy this plushie from Plushie Dreadfuls from the Mysterious Shop! Your money will go towards the torture of autistic people. If you must have this plushie, buy it secondhand!
- If you feel it appropriate, you can also boycott the entire Plushie Dreadfuls line.
- Leave a review on the Hope Rabbit, letting the people who buy it and the sellers know what this organization does and what it supports!!
- Plushie Dreadfuls has a Twitter too. Bring your issues with this up in the comments of this account’s posts! But do NOT harass them.
- Remember, our goal out to be to stop the donations to A.E. Wood! Not for the plush to be discontinued, nor to ‘cancel’ the brand. I do not doubt for a moment that this is a simple mistake born from good intentions, due to this brand’s prioritization of the voices of the disorder they base plushies on. Let’s be calm and civil!
That’s all! Again, I bring this all up due to the Gender Dysphoria Rabbit’s popularity. I think that you can feel free to buy that rabbit, because it doesn’t have its proceeds donated to ABA. But if you choose to shop at Plushie Dreadfuls, please do not purchase the Hope Rabbit!
Their website also has an email you can contact them with. I've sent an email detailing how supporting aba is harmful and examples of better places they can donate their money to
Well after requesting to speak to the people involved in the decision making for this plush and not just customer service, I have been officially ghosted. After looking at how they respond to negative reviews on trustpilot and their responses to being criticized in the past, I don't think we're going to be able to talk to them about this. If what someone in the notes said is correct and the owner cares more about money than morals, then I think the only way to make him change this is to boycott not just plushie dreadfuls, but any property connected to American McGee and to politely let him know why we are boycotting.
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