Alt-right Uptake of Sperm Decline Science
By Meg Perret
Trigger Warning: Anti-Blackness, racism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia
In our paper, “The Future of Sperm,” published in the journal Human Fertility, we argue that one reason to carefully consider a broad range of explanations for apparent trends in human sperm count is that such research has a wide uptake, particularly in conversations about cultural changes related to gender, sexuality, and race.
With media headlines such as “Urgent Action Needed on Disturbing Male Fertility,” the findings of Levine et al. (2017) received wide press coverage, including in alt-right online forums. And yes, we went to the dark web so you don’t have to. Here we document and analyze discourse on alt-right threads on 4CHAN, Reddit, and Twitter following the publication of the 2017 Levine et al. study that the GenderSci Lab critiques in our new paper. Using the search terms “sperm decline” and “male fertility crisis,” we reviewed 4CHAN, Reddit, and Twitter threads between 2017 and 2020 that mentioned the Levine et al. study
As we show, the alt-right mobilizes discourses of gender, race, and sexuality to build a case for the socio-political implications of sperm decline research. As profiled by historian Alexandra Minna Stern, the alt-right is a radical right-wing group made up primarily of white men that rejects establishment conservatism and finds common cause in its antipathy towards feminism, multiculturalism, and immigration. We chose to analyze online forums because as Stern describes about the group’s emergence in the early 2000s, the internet has served as both an accelerant and a primary medium of communication among the alt-right community. Through examining the interaction of scientific claims and alt-right rhetoric, we contribute to scholarship in feminist theory on the gender politics of the alt-right. Our findings have broader implications for understanding the ideological underpinnings of alt-right violence against women, LGBTQ people, and people of color.
“The alt-right expressed anxiety surrounding shifting population demography, changing cultural norms surrounding reproduction, and what they perceive as the decline of white male fertility and social status”
We found that in response to the Levine et al. paper, online alt-right media forums uncritically adopted Levine et al.'s claim of sperm count decline in Western countries, and most discussions focused on debating the cause of sperm decline. On the online forums, the most common explanation for sperm decline was the rise of feminism that changed gender norms, or the increase of environmental pollutants that harmed male reproductive health. A third explanation given was human overpopulation, especially among racial minorities.
Feminism as the cause of sperm decline
We found that the alt-right online discourse describes emasculation by either feminism or environmental pollution as the cause of low-sperm count. Alt-right online discourse often identifies the “feminization” of men, i.e., men’s changing social status in modern society, as the cause of sperm decline. Much of this discourse reflects what feminist scholars have called “male victim ideology” where the spread of feminist beliefs are portrayed as coercive and harmful to men. As documented by Sally Robinson, white men often see themselves as victims of shifting gender norms in modern society, such as describing the entry of women in the workforce as economic and political disenfranchisement of men.
Alt-right online forums describe how “social pressures” and “political correctness” have imperiled American masculinity, thus affecting the quality of their sperm. As written in a Twitter response to the Levine et al. article, “The forced feminization of men affects more than their attitudes. Makes them less maculine [sic] in all respects including reproductive capability” (emphasis ours). In the view of those on these alt-right forums, returning to a “traditional American society” without feminism would reinstate normal sperm counts. Another Reddit thread opens succinctly: “TL:DR: Feminism is creating low sperm counts.”
Environmental pollution as the cause of sperm decline
Broader discussions about environmental pollutants describe them as byproducts of modern life that are often responsible for health concerns. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are chemicals that mimic hormones and interfere with processes in the body. EDCs are of concern for reproductive health because some chemicals can convert testosterone to estrogen in the body, which some believe can disrupt male fertility and sperm production.
Alt-right online discourse describes EDCs as driving the feminization of men. Many comments express concern over the ubiquity of soy and plastics as sources of EDCs. Other comments refer to EDCs causing the rising rate of male homosexuality, which the authors believe to be causing lower sperm count. These comments are homophobic and describe homosexuality as a “killswitch installed by God” that lowers sperm count to prevent these men from reproducing. As noted by previous scholars, this reflects broader anxieties among the alt-right about the disruption of gender norms by sexual minorities, and the formation of alt-right ideological “masculinism” that is patriarchal, hierarchical, and heterosexual.
A series of comments on an alt-right thread on 4CHAN specifically identify birth control as a source of EDCs that contributes significantly to the decline of sperm. These comments are notably sexist, often suggesting that women should not be allowed to take birth control or have sexual autonomy. This is an example of what feminist scholars have identitied as the broader patriarchal politics of the alt-right in which grievances against women in part are used to justify verbal and physical violence against them.
Overpopulation by people of color as the cause of sperm decline
Although less common that the rhetoric previously analyzed, some alt-right online discourse blames sperm decline on human overpopulation. As a comment on an alt-right Reddit thread says, in the context of overpopulation, lower sperm count is “nature’s way of swinging the pendulum the other way” by decreasing the number of births. The author of this comment continues that “Mother Nature knows best.” A 4CHAN comment similarly describes decreasing sperm counts as a natural culling mechanism to remedy overpopulation.
“This alt-right online discourse on overpopulation reinscribes eugenicist ideas”
Yet, alt-right online discourse about overpopulation raises the concern that while overpopulation causes lower sperm counts and reproductive rates, white men are not reproducing at rates that compare with racialized others, especially immigrants and African Americans. As one comment puts it, “humans have doomed themselves” by allowing the wrong males to reproduce. Several comments on Reddit lament that “only the good people are dying” because African Americans and immigrants continue reproducing, while white families have fewer children. One comment on a Reddit thread bemoans the fact that men who “don’t have good genetics for sperm count” such as disabled people are allowed to live and reproduce through new reproductive technologies.
This alt-right online discourse on overpopulation reinscribes eugenicist ideas in ways described by feminist scholars such as Banu Subramanium. Eugenics is a movement that originated in the late nineteenth century and is aimed at improving the genetic composition of humanity, often by removing disabled people and racial minorities from populations via immigration policy and forced sterilization. Since the publication of The Population Bomb, a book by Paul Ehlrich that brought to a broader audience discussions of possible societal upheaval due to overpopulation, environmentalists have advocated for reducing the human population in order to protect the environment, in ways that often scapegoated communities of color. This environmentalist advocacy extends eugenicist logics by focusing on the reproductive rates among communities of color and/or overpopulation in developing countries, such as India or China, rather than the high rates of natural resource consumption among the elite in wealthy countries such as the U.S. The twisting of environmental politics by the alt-right is an example of what feminist political theorist Betsy Hartmann describes as ecofascism—the dangerous intersection between environmentalism and white supremacy—or a “greening of hate” in which concern for the environment is co-opted as a ruse for increased control over women’s reproductive capacities, surveillance of racial minorities, and securing the borders against immigration.
Conclusion
This blog post documented discourses of gender, race, and sexuality in discussions of sperm decline research in alt-right online forums. While most alt-right online discourse agreed that human sperm decline as documented by Levine et al. was occurring, there were three proposed explanations for the decline: feminism, endocrine disrupting chemicals, or overpopulation. Throughout this discourse, we found that the alt-right expressed anxiety surrounding shifting population demography, changing cultural norms surrounding reproduction, and what they perceive as the decline of white male fertility and social status. We suggest that scientists consider how their use of language when communicating their research findings can be taken up by various communities, including those who hold racist, sexist, and homophobic viewpoints.
REcommended Citation
Perret, M. “Alt-right Uptake of Sperm Decline Science.” GenderSci Blog. 2021 May 4, genderscilab.org/blog/alt-right-uptake-of-sperm-decline-science
Statement of Intellectual Labor:
Helen Zhao contributed to the research and planning of the blog post. Meg Perret contributed to the research and planning, and wrote the blogpost.