Gender-reveal parties as mediated events : celebrating identity in pink and blue / Carly Gieseler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gieseler, Carly, 1978- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Showers (Parties)--Social aspects.

Showers (Parties).

Social aspects.

Physical Description:

vii, 121 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, [2020]

Summary:

"A decade ago, it was difficult to imagine parents-to-be jumping from planes or dyeing their hair to publicly declare the sex of their unborn children. Yet gender-reveal parties have rapidly grown in popularity, saturating the public imagination surrounding pregnancy and parenthood. As a highly visible trend, gender-reveals correlate with our increased digital capacity for sharing, competitive consumerism, ritualized communitas, and social media currency. At the roots of this trend, there may be motivations to reassert binary identities against a climate of acceptance and progression surrounding gender fluidity. To analyze the divisive discourse surrounding this phenomenon, this book explores issues including technologies of reproduction and media; community and competition; visibility and signifying the unborn; consumerist imperatives; and those uninvited from this trend. Carly Giesler argues that gender-reveal rituals create a collective space to choose costumes of gender, ritualize the binary, and imprint identity prior to birth."--Back cover.

Notes:

"Girl or boy?"--at head of cover.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781793603838

1793603839

OCLC:

1114368668