ABSTRACT
As prenatal medical technology has improved, the number of parents using ultrasounds to determine what they believe to be the sex or gender of their unborn child has risen and become a cause for celebration. One popular trend is the “gender reveal cake,” in which the parents cut open a cake to reveal the alleged gender of their child based on external genitalia observed in ultrasound (pink for vulva, blue for penis). Through these art pieces of “gender reveal disaster cakes,” I examine the destructive nature of the “gender reveal” both to the transgender, non-binary, and intersex community as well as to the environment and guests of the parties themselves, as the “reveals” have grown increasingly explosive and violent in nature in an attempt to appease the fragile masculinity of the fathers to be.
