Average annual US industrial chemical production 1919-2019

This paper argues that the concepts of “normal” reproductive development
that biologists rely upon are undergirded by heterosexism, ableism, and
white supremacism, even if implicitly. We illustrate our argument by
critically analyzing toxicology’s use of reproductive fitness, focusing on
the field of endocrine- disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Toxicology both
informs and is informed by fundamental evolutionary and ecological
questions, as well as environmental health. Throughout, biologists
overwhelmingly assume that “abnormal” reproductive physiologies are both
generated by EDC exposure and necessarily threaten species survival. Such
assumptions unwittingly obscure fundamental scientific insights while
further discriminating against queer, trans, nonbinary, and
differently-abled human communities. We agree that scientists should be
sounding the alarm over unavoidable, unevenly distributed, and highly
hazardous EDC exposures—which cause metabolic dysregulation, cancer, and
death—but not because gonads and genitals look different. Instead, we
encourage scientists to confront directly how chemical corporations profit
from innumerable, irreversible harms to ecological and societal wellbeing,
harms which may very well have nothing to do with gonads or genitals. We
close with three specific suggestions to help scientists dismantle the
human hierarchies embedded into biological frameworks, toward better
science and environmental justice. By refusing the oppressive social
ideologies assumed by prior research, toxicological and biological
scientists will offer exciting new insights into evolutionary processes
and urgent, justice-centered findings for environmental health.