Review of Temple Grandin (2010) by Another V — 16 Jan 2017

Temple Grandin is one autistic woman's amazing story. Stars Claire Danes.

Temple Grandin's biopic depicts her childhood, school experiences, college experiences, development as a writer and designer, and how she managed to get into the male chauvinistic world of cattle operations (maybe it's not like that anymore but in this movie the cattle operations industry looks pretty chauvinistic). There are some funny moments here and there.

One of the things that makes Temple's life so interesting is the challenges of autism she struggled with throughout everything. A lot of credit seems to belong to her Harvard graduate mother, who did not take the advice of a doctor to institutionalize her nonverbal 4-year-old daughter. Instead, she worked to help her daughter learn to speak and then put her into mainstream school and then insisted she continue her education.

In college, Temple invented a device to help her cope with stress. And she conducted a study on her device. I wonder if devices like this are still being used for autistic? It appears to be hug replacement or perhaps womb simulation, since real hugs from real people were a problem for her.

The best part is how she wrangled into her career. Quite determined, once she set her mind to what she wanted to do. She moved forward with astonishing tenacity. We are told that (more humane and efficient) systems she designed are used in about half of cattle slaughterhouses in the US.