by Michelle Stein posted in Pregnancy

I'm a young mom who keeps up with pregnancy trends, and most of the newer ones in the past decade ? like maternity photo shoots, creatively-painted baby bumps and documenting weekly belly pictures ? I love. But there's one pregnancy ritual I just can't get behind: The "gender" reveal party. (Shudders) Millennials may have invented the gender reveal party, but this one isn't buying into it.
Look, you're having a baby. It's exciting; I get it. You want to share this excitement with close friends and family. And how cool is it for everyone to find out if you'll be having a son or a daughter at the exact same time" The suspense. The collective experience of revealing a secret. I get the draw. But when it comes right down to it, does it truly, honestly matter if there is a penis or a vagina between the legs of your developing baby" Because that's all you're actually revealing, after all.

To me it seems, um, odd to celebrate the genitals of a fetus ? its sex ? which doesn't necessarily determine the gender your child will ultimately identify with. I think Laura Tropp says it best in a piece she wrote for Smithsonian.com.
"The logic behind gender-reveal parties contradicts many of our current sensibilities about gender," she writes. "First, there?s the name: it should really be called a sex-reveal party, since sex is a function of one?s DNA. These parties conflate sex and gender. As the French philos...