ICYMI: Here Are 12 Super-Specific Green Flags You Should Look For While Dating
Does your boyfriend feel compelled to announce everything he's about to do before he does it, even if it's just getting milk from the fridge?Or maybe your partner loves Bruce Springsteen. Like, a lot. So much, in fact, they've been to 89 concerts (and counting).
If either of these apply, we might be talking about a "beige flag" situation, the latest relationship trend taking over TikTok. This isn't the first time the color beige has come up in the context of dating according to Thomas Edwards, dating coach and founder of The Professional Wingman.
"Beige flags started as a way to see if someones online dating profile was seen as boring," Edwards says. "If you use very cliche lines or you like pineapple on pizza or Excel spreadsheets, it seems like it was hints that you were totally boring." But recently the term has taken on new life and from the meaning of beige flags to if they matter in a healthy relationship, we're here to help break it all down.
What is a beige flag?
According to online dating coach Max Alley, a beige flag is a behaviour that your boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse or anyone else exhibits that's, well, kind of strange without quite crossing into full-on freaky territory.
"It's a super niche idiosyncrasy that is kind of funny, weird and unique, but not necessarily bad or not necessarily good," he says.
Are beige flags something to worry about?
Most everyone knows about red flags, or the blatant signs that your relationship is toxic, and green flags, the indicators that you and your love interest are well-suited for one another and its a positive situation overall.
Beige flags, however, are relatively new to the relationship flag family and fall somewhere in the middle. After all, we've all got our deal, right? The thing or things we do that, to us, seem perfectly normal, but to someone else, may seem a bit odd.
Are beige flags overkill?
Since becoming a thing, countless TikTokers have taken to the social media site to post occasionally serious, but mostly amusing, accounts of their partner's unusual quirks, running the gamut from poor texting skills to never checking their bank balance.
For better or worse, beige flags are having a moment.
"We live in a society that loves to identify and categorize things. That's just kind of the trendy thing to do," Edwards says.
But while we're busy analyzing someone's mildly unusual behavior, Edwards says to be mindful that we aren't losing sight of why we're with them to begin with.
The bottom line? While poking fun at someone's eccentricities makes for lighthearted TikTok fodder, keep the categorizing in check.
"I dont think anybody should be ruled out because of the beige flag, because we are all quirky," says Edwards. "Every single one of us are quirky in some way, shape or form and a beige flag is essentially a quirk."
