Eleven months ago that we had a wildfire cause millions of dollars of damage to an arid wilderness area in arizona, with that millions of dollars in damage representing a number of losses, including life, albeit not human life, that we can value as we wish, but is never replaceable.
Now there’s a gender reveal party in Iowa that ended a human life. And why, exactly?
The local pastor said it was because no one thought that putting volatiles together for an explosive reveal might ever, y’know, cause an uncontrollable, violent explosion that might hurt someone. Seems like a perfect metaphor for placing such exaggerated importance on gender. How often has our compulsory gender system resulted in violent explosions ending in death?
Nah. Any excuse for a party, so no particular importance is attached to it.
(Also, video not available to me, and hardly worth looking up elsewhere)
I would hope that someone, at the very least, gets charged with manslaughter for this. Tragedy yes, but this was an intentional act that resulted in the death of a person.
When your “gender reveal” parties start racking up casualties maybe that means our society is a bit too concerned with gender?
After that wildfire last year, I joked, “I assume all gender reveal parties end in massive conflagration.” But then I looked it up and found there are lots of commercial explosives that are explicitly marketed for use in gender reveal parties.
Speaking seriously, I’d guess that the resultant injuries are commensurate with the injuries from other fireworks. I just looked it up and the US had 11k fireworks-related injuries in 2016, and averages about 7 deaths a year.
I am so separated from the “get married and have kids in the suburbs” culture that whenever I hear about a “gender reveal party,” I think it’s an adult human (or younger) who has figured out that their gender isn’t what they were assigned at birth and are celebrating their discovery with their accepting friends.
And then I remember what they are, and I cringe.
Let’s at least be honest about what these are: they’re “fetus organ reveal parties” with a bizarre and unhealthy focus on genitalia. Because it doesn’t reveal anybody’s gender. You can’t know a person’s gender until they figure it out for themself and tell you.
#1 @John Morales
You didn’t miss a thing. Our host’s introduction said more about what happened than CBS’ “reporting”, which mainly told us that in small-town America, everyone knows all the things to say (my heart hurts for the family, this town comes together, who thought this might happen, etc. etc. etc.)
khms, thanks. I am aware of similar incidents, festivities gone wrong.
Huh. Posted 9 hours ago: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50207452
“The dangers – physical and psychological – of gender reveal parties”
Holy fuck, I hope that trend doesn’t make it over here.
I mean, in the end they’re not gender reveal parties anyway but “this is what the fetus genitalia look like on ultrasound” parties, and when you put it like that, a room full of adults very concerned about whether a baby will have a dick or a pussy is creepy as hell, thank you very much.
Another one: https://nypost.com/2019/11/09/plane-crashes-after-unloading-350-gallons-of-pink-water-in-gender-reveal-stunt/amp/?__twitter_impression=true