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Boy or girl? Reveals turn deadly
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A plane crash in Texas, a deadly explosion in Iowa, a massive fire in Arizona 鈥 elaborate baby gender reveal parties, a growing trend among parents in the US, have taken a nightmarish turn.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a girl!鈥 After dropping 1,300 liters of pink-colored water, a small plane flying at low altitude suddenly stalled, crashing in a Texas field.
There were, fortunately, no victims in the early-September crash but another such party 鈥 where expecting parents stage elaborate events to reveal their future child鈥檚 sex 鈥 turned fatal when an Iowa woman, 56, was killed the following month by shrapnel from a pipe bomb.
American parents are no longer satisfied with the traditional gender reveal method: cutting a cake to reveal, after much suspense, a blue interior (for a boy) or pink (for a girl).
With the rise of social media, gender reveals have become more and more sophisticated and 鈥渆xtreme,鈥 according to Carly Gieseler, a professor of gender and media studies at City University of New York.
She has studied the gender reveal trend since its birth at the end of the 2000s.
What started as an 鈥渋ntimate, small gathering鈥 has become a 鈥渕uch larger spectacle, a much more grand affair,鈥 Gieseler said.
鈥淲e鈥檝e gotten to the point where you have explosions and fireworks, skydivers鈥 appearing all over Instagram or YouTube.
In Gieseler鈥檚 opinion, gender reveal parties are 鈥渒ind of filling a void for these communal gatherings that we don鈥檛 really have as much anymore.鈥
They have become so trendy in the US that 鈥渋t鈥檚 almost an expectation of all parents at this point,鈥 she said.
And specialized businesses have begun to pop up, all too eager to meet the demand.
Baseballs and golf balls that burst into puffs of pink or blue powder when hit, shooting targets, balloons, garlands, pastries ...
鈥淭here鈥檚 a huge market,鈥 said Gieseler.
It complements another American custom, that of the baby shower 鈥 a party, primarily for women, where an expecting mother is showered with gifts of baby supplies.
Although gender reveal parties may have managed to get men involved in the pre-birth festivities, they are also accused of reinforcing gender stereotypes.
鈥淓ven though the gender reveal seems to be something light-hearted, it does have implications in terms of re-establishing the gender binary, really imprinting a fetus that hasn鈥檛 even been brought into the world yet with that idea of being either male or female and then all those gender roles and assumptions that go with it,鈥 said Gieseler.
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