It's my gender reveal party and I'll dye if I want to...

The death of a pigeon recently forced the RSPCA to warn parents-to-be to stop dying birds pink. Ellie Muir explains why the social media phenomenon needs to be retired now

You know how it goes. Two excited, slightly nervous parents-tobe stand before a crowd of friends and family. Someone sticks a pin into a giant balloon and – pop! – pink confetti everywhere. “It’s a girl!” a grandmother joyously shouts – as if that wasn’t already clear by the bright pink fireworks now going off somewhere in the background. Meanwhile, someone zooms in on the couple as they hug and cry.

These are the typical scenes of a gender reveal party, in which people get together and watch expectant parents find out the sex of their unborn child. Naturally, the entire thing is a performance for social media, and the more outlandish the affair, the more views you’ll get (#gendereveal has 36 billion views on TikTok). The initially innocuous trend began in 2008 after a blogger named Jenna Karvunidis sliced open a cake on camera to reveal its pink sponge.

But the phenomenon is snowballing into something ugly. Last week, the RSPCA issued a warning following the death of a pigeon that had been dyed pink for one such party. Leicestershire Wildlife Hospital shared a post on Facebook of an injured bird that had been brought in, after which the charity’s spokesperson urged people to “think before you follow these social media trends” and branded it an “act of cruelty”.