The Environmental Disaster of a Gender-Reveal Stunt and Its Impact on the November Election
An exhilarating aspect of language: you never know what words will appear and where they will lead you. While we are capable of predicting or assuming what another will say, there is still every chance in the world that speech will blindside us. Many Americans spend their days online and offline, reading one sentence after another, attempting to be informed and educated. Scientifically, the skill of reading has a good track record of keeping us out of danger. I ask here, what happens when what we read starts to cause the danger?
In most written pieces there is a headliner, briefing you what the following document will be about. But no headline stating “California Wildfires: Extreme Heat Turns State into a Furnace” could have possibly led me to anticipate the fact that a social-media “fad” gone-wrong could be responsible for the blazing “El Dorado Wildfire” that has so far devastated 22 square miles, and is only 41% contained as of 9/12/20 at 10pmCST. 21,000 Residents have been evacuated, and we are waiting to hear the damages and losses report.
My jaw dropped and the hair on my neck stood up. I thought, “this was so preventable”.
The time-stamp of the internet age means we have this great ability to pinpoint the first use-age of a word/phrase/idea. So we know that a Blogger in 2008 is credited with popularizing the festivities of a “Gender Reveal Party”. It was benign and non-malicious intent when Jenna Karvunidis had the idea of revealing the sex of her unborn baby. By cutting open a cake, she and her husband reveal a color to the crowd of family and friends: blue for boy sex, or pink for girl sex. As she put it, “I mean gosh, I just like to throw parties”. The reality of that event was to simply celebrate a new life, a story nearly universally celebrated. 100 years ago the event may have been the talk of the local town for just a few weeks for its creativity. However, there is something about Social Media Platforms that have metaphorically ‘fueled the blaze’ of social and individual comparisons and one-upping. This has far surpassed the 1913 comic “Keeping up with the Joneses”. There’s such a thing as healthy competition…and then there’s whatever the heck that social media creates…the illusion of success rather than the substance.
“The misguided “gender-reveal” stunt is not the first to spark a costly conflagration. A similar antic in 2017 started a 47,000-acre wildfire in the foothills of southern Arizona’s Santa Rita Mountains. Last year, another gender-reveal gimmick set off a brush fire in Florida. Gender-reveal parties have caused a plane crash and last year one killed a grandmother when she was struck with shrapnel after a family unintentionally created a pipe bomb while attempting a colorful explosion to announce the sex of their unborn child.” (Shepherd, K., 2020)
These gender-reveals appear to be an issue best dealt within Public Health education. What information did the family who sparked the wildfire miss?
“It’s a meadow of dry, brown, dead grass,” Oak Glen resident Patrick Patterson told KABC. “Why would you go out there and think that you can light off any kind of firework?” (Shepherd)
Did the family not know the dangers of explosive substances, did they not know what substances, situations, or weather events are accelerants, did they consider safety precautions for exploding hazardous materials? Any of this is plausible and even forgivable. Morally, I wouldn’t put anyone at fault for being truly un-aware (in some cases the state will put a price-tag on your ignorance, so be warned). But what if their desire for an “over the top” gender reveal led the family to disregard their knowledge of the danger-conducting environment? Should we back up and hold accountable Jenna Karvunidis, the company who sold the explosive, or the social media platforms for even introducing the constructs of a tool that fuels a relentless dopamine pathway…getting “likes”?
This particular story of the whole 2020 California Wildfire season, has many intersections of how ignorance can shape devastating events in human welfare. The gender-reveal fires exemplify The Theory of Reciprocal Causation, a biological theory that we are influenced by evolution, and we also shape evolution….”That people both influence, and are influenced by, those around them.” What we read and images we see all become part of our life experience. They influence how we talk, the substance of those discussions, our hopes, and our fears. It’s as natural a connection as tinder to a flame.
Thankfully we have bigger brains than a stick. Media is the gateway to external awareness…and it is individuals who have to retain and develop internal awareness. When we question what we see or read and relate it to our personal context of values and circumstances (location, education, finances, etc.) we can rationalize our motives. Instincts are the number one way to circumvent trouble. Being quiet enough to think and let subconscious arise (who is always trying to keep you alive) before planning is the hallmark of sound judgement.
I’m no expert, but these examples of ‘social media influenced fires’ are concrete issues of awareness which I believe Public Health Organizations truly can aim to address with specific programming on wildfire knowledge and social events.
But because it’s an election season, reading the news entails politics. I’ll wrap up with this. Yes, this tale has reminded me of the impending chaos of hackers trying to influence the election via social media, as well as my brain cycling back through the past 4 years of the most mangled and alarmist Tweets I’ve ever read from a leader.
I implore you dear readers, when you read anything in the coming months…close your eyes and give yourself a chance to process before leaping to conclusions or the next task on your list. Without the pause, our brain eats it up whole, without considering “the coin, the other side of the coin, and who could be influencing the message of the coin”. Can you straighten out my mangled idiom? I’m betting you can.
Just like Jenna Karvunidis never gave thought to her child being gender-neutral. And guess what, Jenna’s 11-year old just might be, she’s still figuring it out one suit and boyish-bob at a time.
Like I said earlier, ignorance can shape devastating events in human welfare. We cannot be ignorant to the speech of our leaders – they have a team of people to help them do that, for that exact reason! No one we elect will be perfect, but I for one just want a team-player. Someone who will RUN to go find more water to douse the fire. America needs an organized Government which is at all times ready to extend the forces and funds necessary to preserve ALL human life; not a politician or businessman used to segmenting us into “markets”. We have lingered in states of shock and resistance for far too long. It is hurting our unity as a nation… and we still await the damages report.
Fire and Disease do not bend to alliances, or status – they come for whoever is in their path. Language and Media are like that to our minds; magnetic.
To those impacted by the fires, I pray for your health and safety above all. To the Readers, Voters, and Change-makers, listen to your intuition, find your Bodinuity.
With Health and Happiness we go,
Kaitlin Bachmeyer