Autism Acceptance Month may be over, but the impact these beautiful minds made will always be limitless, and I would like to take a moment to share why famed activist and author, Temple Grandin is the ultimate avenger.
The film, Captain America: The First Avenger, chronicles the story of Steve Rogers’ journey from a weak skinny kid to a patriotic superhero of honor, and for real life heroine Temple Grandin, her journey details similarities to Steve’s. No, she wasn’t injected with super soldier serum, or fought nefarious supervillains like The Red Skull. However, she’s gifted with an innovative mind that forever changed the autism community, livestock industry, and she fought against sexism in the workplace. Like Captain America, Temple Grandin taught people that no matter how many times they get knocked down in life; they can come back stronger. Temple Grandin may not be a superhero, but she’s a hero nonetheless that many people on and off the autism spectrum and women can look up to.
Growing up, being on the autism spectrum proved to be challenging for Temple Grandin. That is until she would soon discover that her ASD (autism spectrum disorder) also proved to be much more of an asset than a liability, like her sensory issues. For people with ASD, their senses are more heightened than the average human. When those senses get overloaded, it usually causes them to overthink, get anxious, and panic wildly. Temple Grandin’s experiences with her own sensory issues had put her through the wringer in her life, but amid her struggles she had an idea that eventually became a reality. During the times she visited her aunt’s farm, Temple observed a device that helped calm the cattle. Her autism helped notice that change in the sounds the cattle makes when they went through a machine that calms them with a gentle pressure. Seeing how the machine calmed the cattle, Temple thought that it could do the same for her. She invented her own “Squeeze Machine” that relieved her agitation and gave her the feeling of being hugged, which most people with ASD aren’t comfortable with. The invention soon became a public success in use for other ASD children and adults who also struggled with their own sensory issues. Temple’s Squeeze Machine also became a tool for therapy and paved the way for the weighted blankets (We Include, Temple Grandin: Scientist and Activist Autism) (Bancroft, The Calming Effect: Temple Grandin). Temple’s ideas kept on coming and it followed her to help not only the autism community, but the livestock industry too.
Temple always had an appreciation and passion for animals ever since her time at her aunt’s farm. She felt that the animals’ behaviors and sensory issues are like people on the autism spectrum. She said in a Q&A on how her autism helped connect with animals, “Autism helped me understand animals because I think in pictures. Since animals do not have language, their memories have to be sensory based instead of word-based. In my early animal behavior work, I noticed that cattle often balked and refused to walk over shadows, or pass a coat hung on a fence. In the 1970’s, it was a new idea to look at things that cattle were seeing” (Richter, 5 Questions: Temple Grandin Discusses Autism, Animal Communication). Temple believed that animals should be treated with respect and decency, while also knowing that people need meat for nutritional purposes. When she was employed in the livestock industry, she invented a special chute for cattle to be humanely processed before their inevitable fate. Although her invention was met with criticism at first, the owners of the livestock industry soon saw that Temple’s chute has greatly improved the cattle’s meat, because cattle and other livestock’s meat wouldn’t be good when they get stressed and scared before being slaughtered, as Temple proved it in her research (Encyclopedia of World Biography, Temple Grandin Biography) (Delia O’Hara, Temple Grandin: A Heroine to the Autism Community, Brings Humanity to Animal Science). Temple’s determination and intelligence made her a household name in the autism community and livestock industry, but to become the hero she is today she had to fight villainy in the form of sexism.
Being an autistic person, Temple had her fair share of bullies and bigots, but the one obstacle that Temple admits was just as hard, was being a woman in the workplace. As Temple’s career begun, she faced a lot of harassment and sexual bias in her male dominated workplace. Temple attended a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) sharing her experience, “When I started in the early 1970’s, the only women in the beef industry were working as secretaries in the office. I was the first woman in Arizona to handle cattle in the feedlot.” In addition to that, she admitted that a scene in her biopic film, Temple Grandin, when she found bull testicles on her windshield, happened to her in real life (Emily Shire, The Most Inspiring Bits of Temple Grandin’s Reddit AMA). Temple’s harassment didn’t stop there; when she attended London’s Meat Business Women Conference, she spoke of a male co-worker of hers who told her boss that her system design wouldn’t work along with trying to make advances on her (Michelle Perrett, Temple Grandin: My Battle with Sexism). The abuse she faced would’ve made her give up her dream entirely, but it didn’t. If she had given up she never would’ve invented the previously mentioned devices that helped both animals and people with ASD.
In addition to her success, Temple Grandin was named in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2017. She recently was named one of the Top 10 College Professors in the Country and has been honored with a sculpture in her likeness in the JBS Global Food Innovation Center on the Colorado State University Campus (templegrandin.com). Temple Grandin has come a long way from an introverted little girl to an inspiring successful woman. Like Steve Rogers, Temple has been knocked down so many times she could’ve given up, but her passion, endurance, and courage made her the hero she was then and still is now. If The Avengers were looking for new members, Temple Grandin would be a shoe-in.
Editor: Julianna VanValin
So next time when you think of inspiring autistic women, be sure the first person comes to mind is Temple Grandin!