There can be no doubt that the gender reveal party has gotten out of control. People are firing guns, popping balloons, starting forest fires – all in the name of finding out (or telling others) whether your growing nugget has a penis or a vagina.
But the mom who popularized the movement 10 years ago when she ordered a cake with surprise-pink icing inside has realized, after having three children, that what’s between our children’s legs is perhaps the least interesting thing about them.
Back then, Jenna Karvunidis’ gender reveal cake went viral, even being featured on The Bump.
“I was more the tipping point and gave a party structure to what people have likely been celebrating since ultrasounds were invented,” she told Buzzfeed News. “I just gave form to having the doctor put the news in an envelope and revealing it through cake icing at a party.”
Now her post, which includes both an updated picture of her family and her updated views on gender reveal parties, is getting plenty of interest, too.
In 2019, Jenna ventured back into the gender-interest fray with the news that her perspective has changed – partly because her eldest daughter is starting to express herself in non-binary ways.
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She loves to wear suits, Jenna says, and that’s just fine.
“As for gender in general, I’m taking my daughter’s lead,” she says. She goes on to discuss her “mixed feelings” about her “random contribution to the culture.”
“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.”
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People on Twitter are sharing and loving her post, in agreement with the sentiment and the welcome idea that people’s thoughts and beliefs on things like gender fluidity really can change.
“I just feel like there are a thousand details more important about a person than their gender,” she told Buzzfeed. “It’s a bad detail to hang on for a baby, and just because it’s the first thing we know about kids, it’s not the most important by far.”
That said, everyone loves cake and a party, so Jenna suggests perhaps we shift to celebrating a pregnancy itself, and not a boy or a girl specifically.
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“It can happen sooner, and everyone still gets cake.”
A happy ending I think everyone can agree upon, don’t you think?
