Gender reveal party slammed for trashing park: ‘I can’t believe the lengths people will go to’
In recent years, gender reveal parties have become a staple of many pregnancies as people try to think up increasingly extravagant ways of showcasing what genitals their yet-to-be-born baby will have.
To be fair, many gender reveal parties go smoothly and without issue but several have caused outrage in the past. And, even worse, injuries, damage and death.
A recent Reddit post showed what appeared to be the aftermath of a gender reveal event in a park, which left piles of blue plastic confetti littering the ground.
The Redditor who posted the picture then took it upon himself to picking up every bit of litter from this party – though he was not involved in the littering – and wrote: “Not a lot of volume, but did get all of them out of the park!”
Pink or blue confetti is often used in gender-reveal parties, but because it takes years to biodegrade and can introduce harmful microplastics to the environment, it is not recommended to use them in public, natural spaces – or at least to make sure that they are removed at the end.
Several commenters on the post were outraged by the scene, with one person saying: “I still can’t believe the lengths people will go to just to make a deal about their baby having a penis.”
Another said: “You’re a legend for putting in the effort to pick up confetti, it’s always the hardest thing to pick up for me.”
A third said that “the manufacture of non-biodegradable confetti should be illegal”, preventing people from using it irresponsibly in the first place.
California gender reveal fire
This is not the first time a gender reveal party has made headlines or been widely discussed on social media for affecting the environment negatively.
In one case, a pigeon was found in New York dyed pink as part of a gender reveal party. The culprits were not found.
In another case, a couple in Brazil dyed a 60-foot-tall waterfall blue and were later investigated for environmental damage.
However, one of the worst gender reveal party disasters happened in California when one couple set off an erroneous firework that led to a wildfire which later burned through over 22,000 acres of land, destroying 20 buildings, injuring 13 people, and killing one firefighter who was fighting the blaze.
The couple were later charged with involuntary manslaughter for their role in the firefighter’s death and ordered to pay $1.8 million in damages.
Another gender reveal party involving a stunt plane led to a severe crash and the death of the pilot flying the plane, sparking serious debates about whether elaborate gender reveal parties are worth the risk.
Gender reveal parties have even been satirised in shows like 9-1-1: Lone Star, which featured a fire at one person’s house due to the powder used in the gender reveal.
In fact, the gender reveal has now gotten so out of hand that even the inventor of them said she regrets creating a “monster”.
She previously told The Guardian that she never meant to start a trend and now thinks that the idea of a gender reveal party is “not great at all”.