One of the most ridiculous customs of the 21st century is a gender reveal party, one in which parents claim to reveal their unborn infant’s gender.
Like a wedding or baby shower, a gender reveal party has no ritual or legal purpose, but is just an excuse for the hosts to throw a party and receive presents from their friends and loved ones. Not surprisingly, like weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs or quince parties, gender reveal parties have grown from simple events to monstrous proportions as parents-to-be trying to outdo each other. Often, their efforts led to tragedy and disaster.
Needless to say, gender reveal parties perpetuate gender stereotypes and a binary gender system. “Gender reveal” is a misnomer: an unborn child’s gender identity is impossible to determine medically. Not every child is born “a girl” or “a boy.” Some are born intersex, which happens in an estimated one out of 4,500-5,500 births. At gender reveal parties, everything from decorations to gift suggestions scream gender stereotypes, primarily the one that relate to gender and color.
Though the belief that “pink is for girls” and “blue is for boys” is now taken for granted, it is a relatively new idea. According to Martena Guirgus, “things weren’t always this way. In fact, only a few years ago, blue was for girls and pink was for boys. Pink is derived from the color red, so it was automatically associated with masculinity because it was a strong color, and blue was associated with girls since it was more of a soft and graceful color. This contradicts our society’s current norms and beliefs today; we consider pink as a weak feminine color, while blue is seen as masculine.”
Gender colors flipped after World War II, when G.I. Joe returned from the battlefield and Rosie the Riveter was sent back to the kitchen. Manufacturers settled on blue for boys and pink for girls, a system which, despite a brief androgynous period in the ‘60s, continues until this day. Today, most of us consider the pink-blue color scheme natural, and all for the good of the baby.
This system of gender and color affects all our lives, even our personal tastes. For example, blue is my favorite color. It inspires my taste in clothes, accessories, and decorations. But I was not born with a natural affinity for blue. My parents influenced my tastes by surrounding me with blue, from the moment that I was born. The fact that I refuse to be tangled up in blue, going to the extent of sometimes buying pink or red items, is still a visible act of rebellion, though not one as rebellious as daily acts performed by my trans, intersex, or nonbinary friends. Rebelling against pink or blue is not enough to overthrow our current gender system, though it might be enough to prevent a few gender reveal parties.
