A gender reveal party is a party held during pregnancy to reveal the baby's sex to the expectant parents' family and friends, and sometimes to the parents themselves. Prenatal sex discernment technology furnishes the necessary information. The practice originated in the United States during the late 2000s.
It is distinct from, but sometimes combined with, a baby shower, where the primary activity is giving expecting parents gifts for their future child. The gender reveal party often involves gender stereotypes such as pink and blue denoting girls and boys, respectively.
The practice is controversial and has been criticized for the use of elaborate and dangerous special effects, which have directly contributed to multiple deaths, injuries and large-scale forest fires, namely the 2017 Sawmill Fire and the 2020 El Dorado Fire. The practice has also been criticized for reinforcing gender stereotypes and the gender binary.
History and development
The gender reveal party developed in the late 2000s. An early example was recorded in the 2008 posts of then-pregnant Jenna Karvunidis on her ChicagoNow blog High Gloss and Sauce announcing the sex of her fetus via cake; she had previously had several miscarriages and wished to celebrate that her pregnancy had developed to the point that the sex of the fetus could be determined. YouTube videos can be found as early as 2008 and 2009, becoming significant around 2011, after which the trend continued to grow through the 2010s.
In 2019, Karvunidis observed an increase in extreme reveal events over the preceding five years, with parents "burning down forests and exploding cars, bringing alligators into the mix". She expressed regret at having helped start the trend, learning how the LGBT and intersex communities feel, and finally revealing the daughter they announced back in 2008 to be a gender-nonconforming individual who wears suits while still identifying as female. After the 2020 El Dorado Fire was started by a malfunctioning pyrotechnical device at a gender reveal party, Karvunidis pleaded for people to stop staging such events.
Comparison to baby showers
Baby showers, a traditional prenatal celebration, have some key differences from gender reveal parties. Primarily, the focus on gender reveal parties is fetal sex, while baby showers focus on the giving of supplies and items for the future infant to expectant parents. Traditionally, baby showers are for women only, while gender reveal parties have no inherently-associated gender restriction and attendee limitations are determined by the pregnant individual or couple. Some couples combine the two.
Spread and mediatization
The trend was popularized on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest, although it originated before the latter two. This mediatization has significantly boosted the likelihood of expectant parents to have or take part in gender reveal parties. Internet remix culture lends the practice great receptivity toward individual creativity, a factor in their growing popularity. Demographic research shows the most gender reveal parties are done by expecting parents that are middle-class, heterosexual White Americans who are married or partnered.
The trend has also reached South Korea. In 2022, Na Ju-ye of the Hankook Ilbo reported that the trend was growing amongst young parents. Na noted that the parties differed in several ways from those in the West. Some parties, instead of focusing on the parents, are focused on the grandparents. In addition, due to the low birth rate in South Korea, the parties are perceived somewhat positively and the historical practice of preferring male children has become significantly reduced. Finally, while there is technically a law that forbids doctors from informing parents of a baby's gender before 32 weeks of pregnancy, parents still manage to receive guesses from doctors.
Planning the event
The focus of gender reveal parties being the fetal sex, such information is a prerequisite. This can be determined at or after the gestational age required by the method being used. For ultrasound, the most common method, the earliest this can be reliably done is approximately 65 days, but it is typically done at around 20 weeks. Both the determination of fetal sex and the party are typically held during the second trimester.