A woman died from an explosion at a gender reveal party

[conuly]

Please. I know you're excited about the new baby. I know that you anticipate sleepless nights and a distinct lack of opportunity to party hearty. I get it.

But please. Please, folks. Stop celebrating with explosions!

Comments

[chelseagirl]

I find the whole notion of gender reveal parties offensive to begin with. Let's just start forcing our children into boxes before they're even born. But oh, that poor woman!

[dewline]

Yeah. Unintended consequences like that are...worrying. So I'll second this suggestion.

[siderea]

I think gender reveal parties are awesome, and everyone so moved should have one. Around age 16.

But maybe with less... exothermicity.

ETA: JEWELS NOT JOULES.

[wpadmirer]

People have gotten batshit with this trying to do something "bigger than anyone else has done" bullshit.

[conuly]

Oh, yes. But realistically I think it's just an excuse to have more cake. (And explosions wtf.)

[conuly]

Though you may want to wait a little later to have your genital reveal party, which is what these ones are all about anyway. Or not!

[tozka]

Holy shit.

[wendelah1]

That's tragic.

[moon_custafer]

Someone on Tumblr recently suggested, rather charmingly, that they wouldn’t mind the concept of gender-reveal parties if they were like coming-out parties teens threw for themselves:

“So what is your gender anyway?”
“You’re just going to have to wait and find out SATURDAY, AT THE ROLLER RINK!”

[greghousesgf]

I find it kind of unnerving that they're keeping this woman's name secret.
The first time I ever heard of a gender reveal party I thought it was some sort of coming out party for a trans person. I still think that should actually exist.

[conuly]

Coming out parties for trans people are the ONLY sort of gender reveal party I can get behind - but so long as people are going to continue to have them for babies, they really need to stay away from the detonators.

[conuly]

Unintended, yet so predictable.

[conuly]

For serious.

[conuly]

Indeed, and tragically preventable. What's wrong with slicing a cake, or having the parent with the corresponding genitals drop trou to show off? (I mean, the latter is a bit weird, but then, so is this interest in baby's genitalia in the first place.)

[conuly]

Indeed.

[jessie_c]

These things are absolutely stupid, and not only because sex and gender are never the same thing.
Besides which, there's no way on Earth to top the top reveal ever so people may as well stop trying.

[dewline]

Seems like a workable option.

[mount_oregano]

Explosives are for professionals. These fools unwittingly made a pipe bomb, and it killed someone (the grandmother, according to local reports) standing 45 feet away.

As for gender reveal as a concept, other comments here have said it well.

[siderea]

I think it might do the world good if nobody was assumed to have their gender nailed down until they officially announced one at a big party in late adolescence.

[conuly]

Sorta like they seem to do in Ann Leckie's Provenance.

[conuly]

I suppose they could have killed even more people, so it could be worse.

[conuly]

Wow.

[jessie_c]

It takes Australians to be that out there.

[fred_mouse]

Ah, Perth. The same place where locals thought motorising a picnic table was a good idea :)

[jessie_c]

Well, you know how it is in Australia. What with all the animals being so well prepared to kill you, you need to be prepared to survive your picnic, let alone enjoy it. In response to this situation, the mobile picnic table evolved.

[fred_mouse]

Absolutely.

But I'm the kind of rebel (disclaimer: West Aussie here) who bushwalks in bare feet.

[ruuger]

I think JY Yang's Tensorate novels have something like that as well, although I could be misremembering.

[silveradept]

I don't understand the need for giant explosions to shout about how wrong someone is about the gender of their child. Because they're probably going to be wrong about it.