The Virgin Mary is always depicted in blue, that’s why. The blue pigment was extracted from lapis lazuli, which is damn expensive, and so was reserved for only the most important subjects. Take a look at Renaissance paintings, you’re unlikely to see much pure blue. Except the Virgin, cos Jesus keeps the best for his Mommy.
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I mean, yes, but my key point was the recognition “hey, baby showers are highly gendered events” does not immediately lead to, “so we should make a new party that anyone can attend, so that we can established those gender norms right off the bat”. That just seems silly.
(I had a male co-worker invite me to a gender reveal party, and I thought that was weird, but they did not invite me to a baby shower, which I would not have found weird)
The Financial Times is a lovely shade of salmon pink. Because the Stock Market of course is ruled by a buncha girls.
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I always thought a hen party was the female equivalent of a stag night. That’s how it is where I’m from (UK) anyway.
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I think that’s a good idea… it’s what my family did instead of a baby shower (although my grandmother held a more traditional one for me)…
This is not. I’m all for inclusive parties, but we should (as a society) ditch these gender reveal monstrosities…
Yep, me too. Here in the colonies, we call them bachelor and bachelorette parties. I had one for a friend, and we took her to a drag brunch, which was fun.
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Here is the only reason for a gender reveal party, done right:
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Now THAT is awesome! 
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Here’s at least some background on why they popped up so suddenly:
Interestingly:
In 2019, Jenna Karvunidis, considered one of the pioneers of gender reveal parties, called for re-evaluation of the practice due to how it might affect transgender and non-binary individuals, also revealing her own daughter’s gender nonconformity
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My daughter (who is a cis female, bi) had a twist on a gender reveal for our grandbaby. She had a party with the “reveal” being green or purple and no designation on what either meant. It was basically just a big party to celebrate momma and baby. I liked that.
(edit: Corrected based on updated information from my daughter who was reading over my shoulder.)
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I propose a more healthy option. Bananas for a boy and apricots and plums for a girl.
Suggested songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgdozC5j3ww for a boy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=480hMfT6QBM for a girl (NSFW for Italian-speaking)
I loved sundresses for my kids-- it’s so cool during the summer. No buttons or snaps to deal with-- just pull it on and done.
My absolute favorite was overalls or shortalls… kept the little monkeys from pulling off their diapers and much more flattering to a baby’s bottom than pants. Nothing is more adorable than a baby or toddler in overalls.
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“In order to provide outward features which will distinguish the Financial Times from other journals, a new heading and distinctive features will be introduced, and the paper will be slightly tinted.” --FT, circa 1893
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This idea reminds me of Ann Leckie’s most recent novel set in the far-future Ancillary-verse. The most prominent culture in the series (the Radch) just uses the female pronouns for everyone and treats gender as a non-issue, but the culture that plays the biggest role in Provenance treats gender as something each individual chooses (along with a formal name) upon the traditional age of adulthood. Kind of like if kids didn’t decide whether to identify as male/female/nonbinary until their bar/bat/bx mitzvah.
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Yes exactly. They would play all summer days in their kiddie pool (most often naked). Easy to throw on a sun dress for quick trips nearby. Bonus, it helped with potty training.
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I was surprised at how quickly tertiary gender markers get engrained in kids. My little potato has a Mickey and Minnie Duplo set that I got him at the thrift store when he was maybe 18 months old. For a while, he referred to both of the mouse toys as “Maisy” (for reasons too complicated to get into). It wasn’t long before he started differentiating between “Maisy” and “Boy Maisy” just based on the minimamlist genderizing of the blocky-ass Mickey and Minnie toys.
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Also this. It’s one of my faves.
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That is awesome. I was contemplating what a more appropriate but still defining the child type party could be. I don’t think we should be defining the child pre birth: it was more a pointless consideration.
The two I came up with were a Minority Report type dystopian future where the unborn child has their gender predicted to an accurate estimate and the colour was then appropriate to the prediction. (Would probably need lots more colours with assigned gender meaning)
The other also would also need more colours: One makes a multicolour cake and whoever gets the colour that is “correct” holds the 21st birthday party to celebrate. (Assuming they have a gender identity that can be correlated to the cake colour by then.)
Nice to see that reality has found one that actually works rather than my two abominations.
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I like this one, too (especially in the context of this story)
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