# What’s up with gender reveal parties and fires? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 7, 2020, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025 "2020-09-07T12:31:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/21 "2020-09-07T22:25:52Z")
How are they truly sure? Of the gender, I mean. ---
**Author:** ![Boudicca90](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boudicca90/32/16818_2.png) [@Boudicca90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boudicca90)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/22 "2020-09-07T23:28:35Z")
That’s my problem with it, that you can determine biological sex at that point, but that doesn’t say anything about what gender they will eventually gravitate to. It would suck to end up causing this much damage and then find out your child has a different gender than what you assumed it was, making the whole thing even more pointless. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/23 "2020-09-07T23:31:38Z")
> [@Boudicca90](#): > > It would suck to end up causing this much damage and then find out your child has a different gender than what you assumed it was, making the whole thing even more pointless. “I burned 80,000 acres and you want to _what?!!!_” ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/24 "2020-09-07T23:49:07Z")
I heard this described as “an accident”. That word is so wrong. We need a word for when someone does some ridiculously stupid shit followed by a not-unforeseeable disastrous result. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/25 "2020-09-08T00:27:15Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > How are they truly sure? Of the gender, I mean. If you called it a “Sex Reveal Party” people might show up with condoms, lube, and the wrong idea. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/26 "2020-09-08T00:45:05Z")
Genital Exposure Party? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/27 "2020-09-08T00:47:05Z")
Nah. Too easy. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/28 "2020-09-08T00:47:46Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I heard this described as “an accident”. That word is so wrong. We need a word for when someone does some ridiculously stupid shit followed by a not-unforeseeable disastrous result Criminal negligence? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/29 "2020-09-08T01:12:51Z")
Too long. The only thing I can come up with is “hombée”, which derives from “hold my beer …” but with the implicit connection to “homme flambé”. Never catch on, though. ---
**Author:** ![Boudicca90](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boudicca90/32/16818_2.png) [@Boudicca90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boudicca90)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/30 "2020-09-08T01:36:47Z")
And unfortunately “Darwin Award candidate” doesn’t apply in this case, since they have reproduced already, and everybody is alive. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/31 "2020-09-08T01:40:04Z")
> [@Boudicca90](#): > > And unfortunately “Darwin Award candidate” doesn’t apply in this case, since they have reproduced already, and everybody is alive. - Practice run. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/32 "2020-09-08T03:25:31Z")
Last I heard, there are people in their twenties who are only now revealing their gender. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/33 "2020-09-08T05:26:25Z")
Some people just aren’t very bright. I was too close to a wildfire started by kids shooting flaming arrows–with dad’s permission–on a tinder-dry mountainside. Actually I was hiking down the mountain when the fire started and then blew up. It got pretty smoky, and ash was blowing all around. I got down 5 minutes before tanker planes started chemical-bombing the place. There was a gender reveal party–can’t recall where–in which the family accidentally built a pipe bomb. It killed an elderly woman. Gender reveal parties are ridiculous. I’d like to go to one where the cake is cut to reveal: purple! 🙂 I also think “pushing presents” for new mothers are dumb. Your gift is your baby. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/34 "2020-09-08T05:51:27Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > I was too close to a wildfire started by kids shooting flaming arrows My pet peeve: Using the word “wildfire” to describe a fire set by human action. If a fire is caused by, e.g., lightning, that’s “wild”. If it’s caused by humans, that’s not “wild”. Maybe it’s “domestic”. But if it gets out of control, then it’s a “feral” fire. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/35 "2020-09-08T05:53:24Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Just be grateful there’s not such a thing as a conception party. We held your gender reveal party when you were just gleam in your father’s eye! ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/36 "2020-09-08T07:41:22Z")
I hate to set off someone’s pet peeve, so I apologize. But according to Webster’s… ## Definition of _wildfire_ 1 **:** a sweeping and destructive conflagration especially in a [wilderness](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wilderness) or a rural area I also checked Britannica and National Geographic. No mention of natural versus human causes. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/37 "2020-09-08T08:07:16Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > > [@Acsenray](#): > > > > I for one have attended many parties at which no one has tried to start a fire, so if there exists such an urge in humans, it doesn’t seem difficult to overcome. > > Fires seem to be a large part of rural parties. I’m lifetime urban / suburban and, in that environment, like you I haven’t seen much fire outside of a BBQ grill. > > But for awhile I knew several families who lived a couple counties out into ruralia. _Every_ party they or their pals had came with a large not-really contained fire. Whether or not there was a safe place to have it. Can confirm. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/38 "2020-09-08T12:21:34Z")
She’s pregnant. It’s hardly a sex reveal. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/39 "2020-09-08T13:32:07Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > My pet peeve: Using the word “wildfire” to describe a fire set by human action. > > If a fire is caused by, e.g., lightning, that’s “wild”. If it’s caused by humans, that’s not “wild”. Maybe it’s “domestic”. But if it gets out of control, then it’s a “feral” fire. The California state fire authorities [CALFIRE](https://www.fire.ca.gov/) use the term “wildland fire” to describe a fire on, well, wild = unimproved land. Which frees up the word “wildfire” for one with natural causes. But so far they’re not winning the battle of usage. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025/40 "2020-09-08T13:45:58Z")
Smokey the Bear is always telling me “Only YOU can prevent wildfires,\*” and has been doing so since I was a kid. Since I can’t possibly prevent lightning strikes or things like that, it seems like “wildfires” has referred to fires caused by human negligence for quite awhile now. \* As a matter of fact, I’m old enough to remember when he talked about “forest fires,” rather than “wildfires.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-up-with-gender-reveal-parties-and-fires/920025.md?page=3)