gender reveal

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Gender reveal party creator says the events are out of control

'Assigning focus on gender at birth leaves out so much of their potential and talents,' she says.

 

Siobhan Ball

Internet Culture

Posted on Jul 26, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 7:56 am CDT

With forest fires, weirdly rigid gender roles, and far too many guns for something involving infants, we can all agree that gender reveal parties need to stop.

Now the woman credited with inventing the pink and blue nightmares has come forward to say enough is enough.

“A weird thing came up on Twitter, so I figured I’d share here,” wrote Jenna Myers Karvunidis in a post on Facebook. “Someone remembered it was me who ‘invented’ the gender reveal party. I had written about my party on my blog and a parenting forum in July 2008. It was picked up & and an interview with me was published in The Bump magazine and the idea kinda spread from there. I’ve got the article framed!”

A weird thing came up on Twitter, so I figured I'd share here. Someone remembered it was me who "invented" the gender…

Posted by High Gloss And Sauce on Thursday, July 25, 2019

“Anyway, I’ve felt a lot of mixed feelings about my random contribution to the culture,” she continued. “It just exploded into crazy after that. Literally – guns firing, forest fires, more emphasis on gender than has ever been necessary for a baby. Who cares what gender the baby is? I did at the time because we didn’t live in 2019 and didn’t know what we know now – that assigning focus on gender at birth leaves out so much of their potential and talents that have nothing to do with what’s between their legs.”

Then there’s this kicker: “PLOT TWIST, the world’s first gender-reveal party baby is a girl who wears suits!”

There’s been some excitement about the creator of gender reveal parties calling them to come to an end.

https://twitter.com/SHYNUDISTGRRRL/status/1154784645462024192

https://twitter.com/CamillaPanda/status/1154788822179287040

Despite cancel culture unfortunately still being in full swing, the response to her change of heart has overall been positive and welcoming.

Though some say it hasn’t been enough.

https://twitter.com/grabcocque/status/1154718728287858688

Twitter user @joshisnotarobot had a delightfully dark take on it.

https://twitter.com/joshisnotarobot/status/1154766879640162306

A debate over the best way to handle gender and infants cropped up, but overall the consensus was that as long as you listen to your kid when they tell you about their gender identity, you’re doing fine.

Other users discussed the major issues around gender reveal parties—you don’t know the child’s gender yet, it’s just an anatomy-based guess!—and how they play into how transgender kids are treated.

https://twitter.com/Chucko78/status/1154709579638476801

And there was some pushback, with people defending gender reveals or taking it as an attack on gender as a construct.

https://twitter.com/Hesterquirl/status/1154665501366378501

https://twitter.com/BDESTARK/status/1154769744680980481

Just because we’re recognizing gender is a construct doesn’t mean we’re trying to take it away from you.

Woke AF.

Posted by Family Rhetoric by Amber Leventry on Friday, July 26, 2019

Twitter user @andromakie suggested a brilliant solution that respects the child’s gender identity and grants them agency.

And there were a couple of other delightfully ironic suggestions, too.

https://twitter.com/StinkBrigade/status/1154677307224801280

Given how popular gender reveal parties have become, some people were shocked to discover that they are a relatively new trend.

And people were generally there for Karvunidis’ parenting.

https://twitter.com/LaurenLFTP/status/1154744099569713152

https://twitter.com/piotrowskixx/status/1154779804224368640

So now that the inventor of gender reveal parties has turned against them can we please just let them die? The unburnt forests will thank you.

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*First Published: Jul 26, 2019, 2:05 pm CDT