Gendered associations of pink and blue

Gendered associations with pink and blue became widespread after World War II, with pink hues assigned to girls, and blue hues assigned to boys. Since the 1950s, these gendered associations have increasingly been applied in the marketing of products, from clothes to toys. These gendered color associations have also become ubiquitous and a cultural norm in many western countries. For instance, a pink ribbon is a symbol of breast cancer awareness, and the two colors are used at gender reveal parties.

Various academic and popular sources have reported either a "pink–blue reversal," wherein the gendered associations of both colors were "flipped" sometime during the 20th century, or at least an inconsistency in the gendered application of colors prior to the mid-twentieth century, with several publications from the late 1800s to the early 1900s asserting pink being preferred for boys and blue for girls.