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Rebecca Namuddu

Professor Granillo

English 103

4 December 2019

Celebrating A New Life

“In front of friends and relatives, they play treasure-hunt style guessing games, pop

balloons to watch either pink or blue confetti fall, and cut into frosted cake to discover the color

of their unborn baby’s future. Loved ones squeal – usually, but not always, with delight…”

(Baby-gender 'reveal' parties…). Cakes have always been used to celebrate a special occasion

where everyone comes together to partake in the event. At the center of the attention is the cake

that everyone waits for to be cut so they can lounge in its taste. The sex reveal cake that I drew is

celebrating the new life that is about to come into this world. I will be viewing this cake through

the feminist lens using semiotics to uncover the meaning it is conveying. Lois Tyson states in the

book Critical Theory Today that, “feminist criticism examines the ways in which literature (and

other cultural production) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and

psychological oppression of women” (79). The sex reveal cake states that the child is either

going to be a boy or girl that will be loved regardless. By way of feminist lens such as traditional

gender roles exemplify that this cake was made to contradict the norms of gender stereotypes

through its semiotics. Thus, this cake portrays that neither a boy or girl is constrained to

stereotypical symbols, but instead free to choose who they want to be and seen as.

The sex reveal cake is vibrant in its appearance from the colors being pultruded on it. On

top of the cake there is yellow icing and the words ‘Boy or Girl” written on the top. While at the

bottom of those words another set of words read “We Love (heart icon) You”. Surrounding the
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cake is a colorful pattern that is memorizing and appealing to the eye. There are the colors green,

pink, blue, orange, yellow, purple, red etc. circling the cake. The design of this cake contradicts

the norms of a gender reveal cake like the “Sweet Mary’s” cake that embodies two symbols for a

boy and a girl. While the “Sweet Mary’s” cake is embodying traditional gender roles the sex

reveal cake stands aside from that.

The sex reveal cake does not portray the traditional gender roles casted onto society

through its built. Traditional gender roles “cast men as rational, strong, protective, and decisive;

they cast women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing, and submissive” (Tyson 81). One

can see this being contradicted through the word choices being used on the sex reveal cake. On

the cake it states “Boy or Girl…We Love (heart icon) You” which is significant. The cake is

stating that the sex of the baby is either going to be a boy or girl, but no matter what the sex of

the baby the expecting parents will love that child regardless. That child is not adhered to the

stereotypes of the gender that society has placed onto that specific gender. Unlike the “Sweet

Mary’s cake that uses wheels and blue to identify to a boy while heels and pink to identify to a

girl places specific characteristic that the child must have, the sex reveal cake opposes that. In the

article “Gender Selection of Babies: Should parents be permitted to select the gender of their

children” states:

In addition, critics express concern that parents who chose to have a child of a particular

gender might be hoping for specific characteristics that are not guaranteed. Parents who

select a male child in the hope that he will be a sports enthusiast, for instance, are

creating expectations that will not necessarily be met, they say. That could lead to

undesirable pressure on children to conform to what their parents expect them to be,

rather than being themselves, critics argue.

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This shows that having the sex of the baby being confined to a symbol belittles the children to

have to fit in with what they were deemed to. For example, the cake “Sweet Mary’s” the cake

symbolizes the boy to wheels and blue which puts pressure on the child before they are even

born yet to like cars and blue. While for the girl, she must like pink and like high heels in order

to fit in to what the parents propose of her to be. “The imagery of gender-reveal parties - pistols

or pearls, wheels or heels, m&m’s with nuts or no nuts - strikes Olson-Kennedy as hyper-

masculine and hyper-feminine” (Baby-gender 'reveal' parties…). Unlike the “Sweet Mary’s”

cake, my sex gender reveal cake not only does it not confine the child to a stereotype, it does not

embody any symbols with the two sexes.

Instead my cake gives the child freedom on what they want to like including colors, since

the word “Boy” is not in a solid blue color, but each letter has a different color. Including the

word “Girl” that is not a solid pink color but instead each letter has a different color. “Dr. Peter

Lee, a pediatric endocrinologist and professor at Penn State College of Medicine in Hersey,

Pennsylvania, told Reuters Health that long before marketers assigned pink to girls and blue to

girls, men wore high heels to horseback ride, and European men outfitted themselves in lace”

(Baby-gender 'reveal' parties…). My sex gender reveal cake does not pressure the child to be

confined to a specific color or symbol that should represent them instead it gives them their free

will to choose the person they want to be. Not only do we see the traditional gender roles being

contradicted with the words on the cake but also the colors, which are the visually appealing part

of my cake.

Colors are viewed everywhere we go and help depict messages in a different light. From

the way they are presented upon billboards, to commercials, to marketing etc. They are used to

associate to people’s races and are used to categorize the gender someone is. On the cake ‘Sweet
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Mary’s” it depicts two main colors that associate to each gender, with pink being for girl and

blue being for a boy. That cake also uses the colors black and white to depict that this gender

reveal is like black and white. In the article, “Gender Testing in Sports: Should the International

Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) require female athletes to undergo gender

verification tests”, it states:

For example, some people may have Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), which

means they have a Y chromosome, which normally indicates a male, but their bodies do

not respond to the naturally occurring masculine hormone androgen, and thus develop

externally as women. Other women could have two X chromosomes (the normal marker

of a woman) but have overactive adrenal glands, which can lead to excess levels of

testosterone and even the development of ambiguous genitalia—a condition known as

Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia.

This shows that gender is not just black or white instead it is a complicated topic where there are

many options that can arise from it and always do. Beverly Guy-Sheftall states in her book,

Words of Fire: An Anthology of African- American Feminist Thought, that, “A constant reminder

to readers of his commitment to the rights of women was the newspaper’s slogan – ‘Right is of

No Sex’” (433). Not everyone submissively falls into the stereotypes that society has placed onto

gender. We all would not fall into gender stereotypes if we were persuaded to walk the Earth by

the way we freely choose to be.

People walk about in society conforming to the stereotypes that they associate with in

order to be considered “normal” in the eyes of the world that has subordinated them into fixed

boxes that one cannot express themselves freely. In the article, “Baby-gender 'reveal' parties may

have a dark side” Dr. Peter Lee says that “I sort of thought pink and blue, these colors, were
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something that was in the past,” he said. “Gender-reveal parties are overemphasizing the gender.

The excitement of having a new life - independent of gender - is something to be celebrated.”

Unlike my sex reveal cake, it is not simply black and white that society has made gender out to

be or the “Sweet Mary’s” cake that depicts the white and black colors that depicts that gender is

black and white. Instead my cake depicts many different colors that are vibrant and colorful,

showing that gender is not simply black or white, but it is many colors and can be connected into

different ways or patterns. Even though the colors that the “Sweet Mary’s” cake uses to portray a

happy occasion the cake does not back up the happy occasion. My cake on the other hand backs

up this happy occasion by using yellow. Yellow being a symbol of happiness and not using the

colors pink and blue to depict happiness and conform a gender. That is why yellow is depicted

on top of the cake to show the important of this occasion which connects to the word “We Love

(hear icon) You” to show that this a happy moment that the parents would love regardless of the

outcome. Bringing the children into a family that does not put importance on their gender

characteristics but their free will of choice to choose who they want to be and not have

stereotypes placed on them before they step into the world.

In conclusion, the sex reveal cake conveys the message that the new baby that is being

celebrated will be loved regardless of their sex. They will be welcomed where there are no

stereotypical roles that they must confirm to, but they are free to choose who they wan to be. My

cake does not fall into traditional gender roles instead it contradicts it from the word and colors

being portrayed on it. The words are welcoming and do not subordinate their gender to specific

characteristics and likes that they should have instead shows that they are in control of the person

they want to be. Their sex does not define who they are, they define who they are as their own

person. The colors are also vibrant and warm showing that that their gender is not black and
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white but instead is dressed in many different colors that they get to choose and place on

themselves. Children should be celebrated into the outside world to express themselves freely

and not be confirmed to the sex that they are born into. They should not be pressured into the

characteristic that society has placed upon their sex before they have even entered the outside

world. It’s their free will to decide what kind of person they want to be and what characteristics

they feel comfortable with, in expressing who they are.

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Work Cited

"Baby-gender 'reveal' parties may have a dark side." Reuters, 30 Nov. 2017. Issues &

Controversies, Infobase,

https://icof.infobaselearning.com/icofnewstopic.aspx?reutersID=380489. Accessed 4

Dec. 2019.

Should parents be permitted to select the gender of their children?" Issues &

Controversies, Infobase, 13 May

2005, https://icof.infobaselearning.com/recordurl.aspx?ID=2498. Accessed 4 Dec. 2019.

"Gender Testing in Sports: Should the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)

require female athletes to undergo gender verification tests?" Issues &

Controversies, Infobase, 22 Feb.

2010, https://icof.infobaselearning.com/recordurl.aspx?ID=1755. Accessed 4 Dec. 2019.

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Words of Fire: An Anthology of African- American Feminist Thought

[1831-1993]. New York: New Press, 1995, pp 433.

Sweet Mary’s. “Wheels or Heels”. Pinterest. www.pinterest.com/pin/60186393768/?|p=true.

Tyson, Lois. Ch 4. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. 3rd ed., Routledge, 2015,

pp 79-81.