In 2019, ten years after she wrote an article on her blog about her idea to throw a party in order to reveal the sex of their unborn child to their loved ones, Jenna Karvunidis begged people to stop throwing gender reveal parties.
In a Facebook post shared in August 2019, Karvunidis, who owns the blog, High Gloss and Sauce, admitted that she regrets ever starting the trend. “I’ve felt a lot of mixed feelings about my random contribution to the culture. It just exploded into crazy after that. Literally – guns firing, forest fires, more emphasis on gender than has ever been necessary for a baby,” Karvunidis wrote.
A weird thing came up on Twitter, so I figured I'd share here. Someone remembered it was me who "invented" the gender…
Posted by High Gloss And Sauce on Thursday, July 25, 2019
RELATED: Mom Who ‘Invented’ Gender Reveal Parties Reveals She Now Regrets Starting the Trend
‘Inventor’ of Gender Reveal Parties Says ‘STOP IT’
As she continued, the mom three wrote, “who cares what gender the baby is? 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.”
She then concluded her statement by saying, “PLOT TWIST, the world’s first gender-reveal party baby is a girl who wears suits!” And it wasn’t like she initially took credit for being the first to ever throw a gender-reveal party, but following her 2009 featured article in The Bump, people have credited her as such.
Now, Karvunidis is making another statement after reports that a gender reveal created an explosion that sparked at least one of the current California wildfires. (Warning: The Facebook post below contains language some may find offensive and vulgar.)
Oh my god NO. The fire that evacuated parts of California is from a GENDER REVEAL PARTY. Stop it. Stop having these…
Posted by High Gloss And Sauce on Monday, September 7, 2020
“Oh my god NO,” Karvunidis wrote in her September 7 post. “The fire that evacuated parts of California is from a GENDER REVEAL PARTY. 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. It was 116 degrees in Pasadena yesterday and this tool thought it would be smart to light a fire about his kid’s d*ck. Toxic masculinity is men thinking they need to explode something because simply enjoying a baby party is for sissies.”
As the mom continued, she went on to reveal that because of the mess this gender reveal caused, she is receiving hate for being widely know as the “inventor” of the gender reveal. “Excuse me for having a cake for my family in 2008,” Karvunidis said. “Just because I’m the gEnDeR rEvEaL iNVeNtoR doesn’t mean I think people should burn down their communities. STOP.”
As CNN reports, the El Dorado fire, which is said to have been started by a “smoke-generating pyrotechnic device” used at the gender reveal party has grown across 8,600 acres as of September 7 and is just 7-percent contained, according to the San Bernardino National Forest.
RELATED: Gender Reveal Party Sparked Devastating El Dorado Wildfire in California
And as the Washington Post reports, more than 20,000 people have been evacuated from their homes as a result. It’s unclear if charges against those who were throwing the party will be filed.
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