Just Like a Woman: Nature, Chemicals and the Feminization of Science CHARLOTTE BRODY

“This is about how chemicals are trespassing into our bodies, and how our health, our ability to learn, our ability to have healthy babies is being violated without our permission, and without the chemical industry being held accountable for the harm they are creating in fish, in frogs and in us.  I am talking about the need to restore the feminine, and about the science that is suggesting that if we want to protect the planet, all of the planet, we focus on what we need to do to protect 12 year-old girls.”

Something is definitely fishy. In the Potomac River just upstream from Washington DC, about one of every three fish is now intersex –exhibiting both male and female sexual characteristics. More than 80 percent of male smallmouth bass are growing eggs. The likely cause: endocrine-disrupting chemicals that mimic female hormones – AKA gender-benders.

From pesticides to pharmaceuticals like Viagra, Prozac, and huge amounts of estrogen, these gender benders are now surfacing in 80 percent of the waterways in the United States. Naturally, they also contaminate the tap water we drink.

Of course, people are animals, too. What’s happening to the fish is happening to us: from the disproportionate births of baby girls in the Arctic, to falling sperm counts and spiking breast-reduction operations in men. These chemicals are “feminizing” all us critters. How did we get here? And what can we do about it?


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