Gender reveal parties and the celebration of sexism
Gender reveal parties are both anachronistically awkward and increasingly popular these days. On one hand, liberal society celebrates the LGBTQ freedom of gender fluidity. On the other hand, conservative society is fixating on celebrating the social incarceration of gender classification. Is it really that important in 2022 whether a baby comes equipped with a penis?
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Gender reveal parties have become a big little penis thing.
Gender reveal parties are one of the newest and fastest social trends around. Pregnant families come together to celebrate the revelation or social announcement of the biological gender of the unborn. Following customary greetings, appetizers, drinks, and other social formalities, the event climaxes around the gender revelation. Parents proudly announce to their social circle whether the child will be classified as a girl or as a boy at birth. In other words, whether the child will be born with a penis or not. In religious minds, whether god sent down to Earth a woman or a man created to "his" image.
The stereotypical colors of blue for boy and pink for girl are used to reveal the gender. Balloons, confetti, or whatever other color-coded party favors spark in the air and come from nowhere to surprise the audience with the gender revelation. As more and more gender reveal videos are posted to social media, the parties are becoming more popular and hosts are becoming more creative in the revelation mechanism. Watch reveal party videos on social media to have some good old fun people watching.
Gender reveal celebrations resemble traditional rituals of antiquity. People gather around the party shamans to witness the pronouncement of a prophetic revelation. We are addicted to information due to the dopamine hits our brains collect when we learn something new. Everyone wants to know whether the unborn will be classified at birth as a boy or as a girl. No one cares about the gender choice of the unborn. The attention is on the social rules and the party favors.
Modern families tend to cheer each gender equally. Every now and then some parents go on camera to confess that they wanted a boy or a girl and so on. Yet, the vibe is not that of medieval times with families waiting for a boy to save the kingdom or avoiding girl who would ruin the family.
Modern gender reveal parties are just another excuse to drink and overeat while preparing expectations for follow-on consumerism. Once the gender is revealed, relatives and friends can buy gender "appropriate" gifts. Parents can spend money decorating rooms for the specific gender classification. From essentials to accessories, everything baby related comes gender customized these days. Differentiation is good for business. Even diapers come in gender specific patterns as if the baby will care where excrement goes into.
The gender box
The child is not even born yet, and society is already putting the baby in a box based on biology. Even before birth, society is already setting the expectations and the rules of the game for that next human. The new human will be expected to behave according to biological features. A penis carrier will be expected to behave a certain way. A vagina bearer will be expected to behave another way.
Most gender based behavioral rules are based on primitive social norms created by our clueless ancestors. Yet, we follow them blindly today. To make matters worse, some people mix these social rules with religious beliefs. They quickly believe that a god wants boys to behave a certain way, and girls a certain other way. Otherwise, the god would not have "created" them that way. Mixing logic and faith is always dangerous because the premise of faith is believing in an axiom that cannot be proven right or wrong. Essentially, you start with a lie out of which you want to derive mini truths. It is a good tool just like math itself, but you begin to fool yourself when you forget that you invented the first axiom to begin with.
Sexism and racism
When biology is taken as fate we get outdated social phenomena like sexism and racism. Both "race" and "gender" are based on biological differences. Undeniably, humans inherit biological features of ancestral populations and environmental adaptations. For example, some have darker melanin (natural sunscreen) to protect the skin from ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Others lack natural protection. Some humans carry a penis and some humans bear a vagina, together with a different reproductive function. So what? In today's world, biology should not equal destiny or should not be a basis for social discrimination. Of course, there must be proactive correction of past discrimination. There must also be recognition of reproductive specialization. However, biology should not be the basis of social oppression.
Neither race nor gender should dictate XYZ privileges or prescribe ABC rules. We have advanced enough as a species as to having to remain tied to primitive rules and outdated social norm invented by our primitive and honestly clueless ancestors. For example, it would be medical practice today to follow some medical practices of 50 or 100 years ago. Likewise, it should be intellectual malpractice today to follow blindly the racial or gender rules created 100, 1,000, or 10,000 years ago.
Gender irrelevancy
It would be irrelevant for a caucasian couple, an Asian couple, or a black couple to host a race reveal party for their biological child. Gender should be as equally irrelevant. The child will carry a penis or bear a vagina at birth. So what? The child will be born as a biological male or female. So what?
Whether is chid is caucasian, Asian, black, or whatever other "race", society should help the child flourish into a productive human being. Similarly, whether the child is male or female at birth, society should help the child flourish into a productive human being. The bullying of racial categories and gender categories is unnecessary these days.
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