feminizing chemicals

[arcticturtle.livejournal.com]

So there's all this yada yada going on about possible estrogen-mimicking effects of chemicals in the environment and plastic products. Most of the commentary focuses on the idea that they could alter unborn boys to make them less masculine.

Is anybody else somewhere between bemused and annoyed that all the commentary acts as if this would be a self-evidently terrifying and disastrous thing?

C'mon, really. It's not as if our species were on the verge of vanishing, and even if it were, the sperm from a dozen men could be stretched to impregnate all the women who could possibly want it. And is masculinity - physical and psychological - in boys really such a desperately important thing? Is our society really troubled by a shortage of chest hair, or a declining interest in professional wrestling?

I mean, I'm all for environmental preservation. And I do worry about the reproductive danger to other species. And, I suppose, if enlisting people's gender anxieties is what it takes to get them to pay attention to the environment, fine. But it just seems a little... insulting. I mean, you don't see people saying, "Save our ozone layer, keep our whites white".