Search the words “gender reveal” on Pinterest, and you’ll find a flood of pastel pink and blue confetti explosions, smoke bombs and paint ball gun displays. A cultural movement that started as a simple cake or party decor has almost turned into an extreme sport, but is it really worth the danger?
Some people think so. In a recent example, CNN reports that a plane crashed today in Texas as the pilot attempted to dump 350 gallons of pink water from it for a friend’s gender reveal party, injuring the plane’s passenger.
This follows numerous other recent gender reveal stunts gone wrong. In July, a car in Australia burst into flames while attempting to release blue smoke for a gender reveal party.
Even the extreme reveals that don’t go wrong definitely have some potential for catastrophe. Take, for example, the viral video of a Louisiana man tossing a watermelon filled with blue liquid into the mouth of an alligator.
The viral, crazy gender reveal video has now become a phenomenon we see so frequently that it doesn’t even surprise people anymore. The constant pressure to one up their friends or a far away couple on the internet pushes these parents to do dangerous stunts — all for a societal construct that can already be harmful.
While, yes, a harmless blue or pink cake may seem like no big deal, it enforces oppressive gender roles. The act of labeling your future child as a pink tutu wearing princess or macho football player in a blue jersey before they’re even born sets the child up to feel pressured into an identity that they never consented to.
Statistically, your child is very likely to identify with the gender they are given at birth, but it is still very likely that they will not. And, even if they do, who’s to say that they’ll prefer pink over blue or vice versa? These clear labels further a cultural stigma that women can’t enjoy “masculine” things and men can’t enjoy “feminine” things.
Gender reveal parties have been morally wrong for years, I actually wrote about this subject as a college student in 2017, but the new physical dangers that they’ve created are even more of an argument to end them. Keeping harmful gender roles alive is really not worth risking your life over.
Poof There it Is Reveals / Etsy
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Opinion: Sustaining Harmful Gender Roles Is Not Worth Risking Your Life Over
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Search the words “gender reveal” on Pinterest, and you’ll find a flood of pastel pink and blue confetti explosions, smoke bombs and paint ball gun displays. A cultural movement that started as a simple cake or party decor has almost turned into an extreme sport, but is it really worth the danger?
Some people think so. In a recent example, CNN reports that a plane crashed today in Texas as the pilot attempted to dump 350 gallons of pink water from it for a friend’s gender reveal party, injuring the plane’s passenger.
This follows numerous other recent gender reveal stunts gone wrong. In July, a car in Australia burst into flames while attempting to release blue smoke for a gender reveal party.
Even the extreme reveals that don’t go wrong definitely have some potential for catastrophe. Take, for example, the viral video of a Louisiana man tossing a watermelon filled with blue liquid into the mouth of an alligator.
The viral, crazy gender reveal video has now become a phenomenon we see so frequently that it doesn’t even surprise people anymore. The constant pressure to one up their friends or a far away couple on the internet pushes these parents to do dangerous stunts — all for a societal construct that can already be harmful.
While, yes, a harmless blue or pink cake may seem like no big deal, it enforces oppressive gender roles. The act of labeling your future child as a pink tutu wearing princess or macho football player in a blue jersey before they’re even born sets the child up to feel pressured into an identity that they never consented to.
Statistically, your child is very likely to identify with the gender they are given at birth, but it is still very likely that they will not. And, even if they do, who’s to say that they’ll prefer pink over blue or vice versa? These clear labels further a cultural stigma that women can’t enjoy “masculine” things and men can’t enjoy “feminine” things.
Gender reveal parties have been morally wrong for years, I actually wrote about this subject as a college student in 2017, but the new physical dangers that they’ve created are even more of an argument to end them. Keeping harmful gender roles alive is really not worth risking your life over.