this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (10 children)

What if the perceived increase in numbers of androgenous and trans people has a chemical basis: chemicals from plastics interfering with the endocrine system.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9885170/

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Actually, this is genius. Get the right wing climate change deniers to fight climate change by telling them that microplastics will turn their Chad of a son into a sissy girl

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Haha, somebody go post this information in some right wing forums!

Are micro plastics responsible for your micro penis? Are they responsible for those trans people you seem to be so afraid of? Stop microplasitcs before they stop America from becoming the greatness that it never wasn't!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Most right wingers seem to be against polluting nature and ocean though, its the co2 stuff thats a harder sell

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

they'd just inject trans women with extra testosterone to "cure" them, making them all commit suicide.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This has "they turn the freaking frogs gay" energy

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Funny enough, I think that all started with a study about hormone mimicking plastics.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Holy shit, how is this not a super high priority right now? Not because of trans people but the conclusion that microplastics interfere with hormones seems super fucked up

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Pay attention to the "What if" part of this post. There is not enough evidence in this study to support the hypothesis.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

that's far from what the study says. there is no research on the effects of plastic chemicals in human beings cited in the study, the vast majority of the data is in rats and mice. saying that its responsible for trans people requires some very large leaps of logic that aren't supported by the data or the conclusion of the study.

we have a great deal of anthropological evidence that other cultures conceive of sex and gender in wildly differing ways, both through history and in the modern era. gender identity is a complex social and cultural phenomenon, not some essential trait of the human body with a basis in endocrine function. maybe i'm just sensitive to this shit, but i can't see somebody making a claim like this without just fundamentally misunderstanding what being trans is.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

microplastics made me bimbo-brained

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I was reading What to expect before you're expecting and it says to stay away from any food that comes in any kind of plastic, esp if the plastic container needs to be heated/re-heated.

It says when it gets into your blood stream your body thinks it's estrogen.

The most fucked up part is the EPA says the risk is very low. Probably because plastics are literally everywhere, and banning them at this point would cause an economic catastrophe. Which it def would.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/bpa/faq-20058331

This is an article about BPAs, but they are just the tip of the iceberg of the phtalates - chemicals used to make plastic more durable.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What if the perceived increase in numbers of androgenous and trans people has a chemical basis

I'd be willing to wager it's mostly due to it being safer to be "out" than it was just a few decades ago. Speaking as a 40-odd trans person, growing up in the 80's meant a much higher chance of getting your ass kicked or worse by your "peers" if you stepped out of line when it came to gender expression. I've always been what I am now, it's just that it's been safe to actually do it "out loud", at least for the past decade or so – that seems to be changing now that the right is radicalizing rapidly.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

transgenderism has been a prominent aspect of virtually all human cultures dating back to the dawn of civilization. it wasn't until the Victorian era and colonialism that it was demonized. it's not some new phenomena caused by microplastics

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, but it's possible the chances of it occuring are increased with micro plastics. Kinda like how exposure to some chemicals used in plastics seems to increase the likelihood of a child having ADHD. It's not the sole reason, nor are trans people new, but micro plastics might make trans people more common.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Current demographic information seems to suggest that transgender people are no more frequent than they have been historically, just more visible / likely to come out.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This. I've seen more people come out as a part of some minority in last several years than, say, in 2000s in general, and that's not a time span during which any alleged and meaningful genetic or biological changes could play a role. It's just a much better and safer time to come out compared to everything before.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Almost exactly the same kind of situation with mental illnesses such as Autism or ADHD, you see people scream that the rates are rising and trying to pin it on external factors without even considering that the medical diagnosis/process and tracking of all of that has consistently improved, it just makes sense we'd be seeing more examples as previously undiagnosed "weird" people are able to diagnosed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

mental illnesses such as Autism or ADHD

These aren't really illnesses, though. Think of it as of being left- or right-handed - it's your brain functioning in a different way, but not a pathological one.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Eh, they consider it a-typical, it's basically considered a mental illness. "neurotypical"

Let me clarify to say, I don't think there's inherently anything actually "wrong" with non-neuotypical folks, I have ADD for sure and I know it's definitely an impediment to myself in various aspects of my life in ways neurotypicals also experience from time to time, but not on a near constant basis like some of the population.

Like most things in life, it's a sliding scale :p

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Why, that could only mean that micro plastics have always been around. /s

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

He was somewhat lol, but of course uses the facts to twist it into a different narrative entirely, that's what he do.