More than a decade ago, Jenna Karvunidis was eagerly awaiting the news many first-time parents can't wait to learn: whether she was having a boy or a girl. In fact, Karvunidis was so excited that she threw a little party to announce the news and later wrote about it on her former blog, High Gloss & Sauce. Over the next 12 years, she watched her gender reveal party became a trend that virtually exploded around the country. And over the weekend, she was horrified when a gender reveal party in California quite literally exploded in the middle of a San Bernadino County park, sparking a wildfire that has since destroyed nearly 10,000 acres of land. As a result, she sat down and penned an urgent Facebook plea, begging people to "Stop having these stupid parties."
The California mom may have thrown the first known gender reveal party, but she is no longer a fan.
Last year, she came out publicly to set the record straight on how she feels about them now — and it's safe to say the mom of three is full of regrets.
"I've felt a lot of mixed feelings about my random contribution to the culture," she wrote in a July 2019 Facebook post. "It just exploded into crazy after that. Literally — guns firing, forest fires, more emphasis on gender than has ever been necessary for a baby."
To be fair, Karvunidis doesn't actually take credit for "inventing" gender reveal parties.
It's others who have given her that accolade many times over the years, according to BuzzFeed.
"I was more the tipping point and gave a party structure to what people have likely been celebrating since ultrasounds were invented," Karvunidis told the news outlet last summer. "I just gave form to having the doctor put the news in an envelope and revealing it through cake icing at a party."
But now, she views them through a very different lens.
"Who cares what gender the baby is?" she wrote in her post last year. "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."
The reason for Karvunidis's about-face is quite simple, really. Little did she know that the baby girl she welcomed some 12 years ago would grow up to identify as nonbinary — shattering everything she once thought about so-called gender "norms."
"PLOT TWIST," she wrote. "[T]he world's first gender-reveal party baby is a girl who wears suits!"
(Plot twist indeed!)
This past weekend, Karvunidis once again denounced the parties as ridiculous.
But this time, she called out how dangerous they've become.
"The fire that evacuated parts of California is from a GENDER REVEAL PARTY," the mom of three wrote Monday. "Stop it. Stop having these stupid parties. For the love of God, stop burning things down to tell everyone about your kid's penis. No one cares but you."
Karvunidis was talking about the California wildfire sparked Saturday morning after an unnamed couple announced their baby's gender with a "smoke-generating pyrotechnic device" in El Dorado Ranch Park near Yucaipa. According to investigators, the couple was standing in tall grass at the time, which caught fire and could not be extinguished. Although no one was harmed and no injuries have been reported in the days since the fire broke out, it rapidly spread throughout the park and has caused more than 21,000 people to be evacuated from their homes.
From her post, Karvunidis seems pretty fed up about the whole thing.
"It was 116 degrees in Pasadena yesterday and this tool thought it would be smart to light a fire about his kid's d–k," she wrote. "Toxic masculinity is men thinking they need to explode something because simply enjoying a baby party is for sissies."
Needless to say, people have a LOT of opinions about this.
Plenty of people seem to agree with Karvunidis, noting that the parties have gotten way out of hand.
"Fully agree," one person commented. "And if folks DO feel compelled to share their babies anatomy, THIS is not the way to do it. I don't agree with them in the first place, but this is just plain OTT and cringeworthy!"
"I couldn't have said it in a better way: gender reveal parties are the iconic expression of toxic masculinity," another person wrote. "What an old fashion way to celebrate a baby: blue smoke for boys and pink smoke for girls."
"With many people saying that they are trans or nonbinary these days, IMO, the expensive gender reveal party is rather unnecessary," someone else commented.
Others said that if anyone's too blame for the trend, it's Karvunidis herself.
"They're following your lead," one person snapped. "Sorry you don't like where you led them to. Guess maybe you should think things through better next time?"
Plenty of others, however, came to her defense.
"Thank you for speaking out," one person said. "I certainly don't blame you for this and I would hope others don't either. You did not go out and set off a smoke bomb in a park with dry brush around during a heatwave. There are many parts of the area around the bottom of the hills and mountains that have had fireworks banned for YEARS."
This certainly isn't the first time a gender reveal party has gone too far.
Believe it or not, an Arizona wildfire was started back in 2017 from a similar gender reveal device. It went on to burn more than 47,000 acres of land and to cause $8 million in damages after being ignited in the desert.
The expectant father, an off-duty US Border Patrol agent named Dennis Dickey, had reportedly packed a target with a highly explosive substance called Tannerite and shot at it with a high-powered rifle. It was supposed to burst into color — blue or pink — but instead set the surrounding brushfire ablaze. Dickey was charged with a misdemeanor violation, sentenced to five years probation, and ordered to pay restitution for his role in the fire.
As for the El Dorado case, investigators have not yet announced whether charges will be filed.
