California 's El Dorado Fire, still burning in San Bernardino County as of Tuesday, has been blamed on a gender-reveal party gone wrong.- This prompted Jenna Karvunidis, the blogger credited with starting the gender-reveal trend more than 10 years ago, to condemn the practice on Monday.
- "Stop it," Karvunidis wrote on Facebook. "Stop having these stupid parties. For the love of God, stop burning things down to tell everyone about your kid's penis."
The woman who popularized the gender-reveal party is calling for an end to the practice after one such event was blamed for a
In a Facebook post on Monday, Jenna Karvunidis wrote that it was time to "stop having these stupid parties."
"For the love of God, stop burning things down to tell everyone abour your kid's penis. No one cares but you," she said.
"It was 116 degrees in Pasadena yesterday and this tool thought it would be smart to light a fire about his kid's d---. Toxic masculinity is men thinking they need to explode something because simply enjoying a baby party is for sissies."
Karvunidis is believed to have started the gender-reveal trend when she wrote a blog post back in 2008 detailing how she revealed the sex of her unborn child with cake that had pink icing on the inside.
Karvunidis sought to show that there was a difference between her display and the more dramatic ones involving pyrotechnics that expecting parents have been coming up with lately.
"Excuse me for having a cake for my family in 2008. Just because I'm the
California's El Dorado Fire, which is burning in San Bernardino County, has been blamed on a gender-reveal party gone wrong. Fire officials said Saturday that the fire was sparked by a "smoke-generating pyrotechnic device, used during a gender-reveal party."
As of Tuesday morning, the fire had grown to nearly 10,000 acres, CNN reported.
Such parties were also blamed for a 2017 fire in Arizona that spread to 47,000 acres and a 10-acre brush fire in Florida in April.
This isn't the first time Karvunidis has expressed regret over starting the popular trend.
Last year, she wrote that she'd developed "mixed feelings" about applying gender stereotypes before a child is born.
Her perspective on this was changed after she became a mother and her firstborn daughter, Bee, started defying gender norms by dressing in a more masculine style.
"Who cares what gender the baby is?" Karvunidis wrote in the post. "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."
In an interview with Insider after writing the blog post, Karvunidis said another incident that made her question gender reveals was when another of her daughters, who she described as more "girly," got upset when she was gifted Lego blocks for Christmas.
"She started to cry, and when I asked her what was wrong she said: 'Why would Santa bring me a boy present? It's not pink.'
"Everything is being pinkified these days," Karvunidis said. "While it might come from the right place, what is really happening is that they're boxing girls into a smaller and smaller space. That's not what I want. I want all of the things for all of the kids — let them decide."
- Read more:
- An Iowa woman died after she was injured by an explosion at a gender-reveal party
- Police issued a warning after a gender reveal went horribly wrong and led to a car fire
- 10 of the most over-the-top gender reveal stunts of 2018
- A couple used fireworks for their gender reveal party — but things went horrifically wrong