Move aside, red flags: We are now entering an era of 'beige flags,' or what TikTokers are calling random behavioral quirks that are not great (but not terrible)
According to users, beige flags include pinning socks together in the laundry, not admitting someone smells good, and refusing to wear sunscreen.
(L) Screenshot/TikTok - itscaito, (R) Screenshot/TikTok - brontecrawley
- The term 'beige flag' dates back to 2022, but it's become increasingly popular on TikTok nowadays.
- Users are using it to endearingly expose their partners' odd and otherwise random behavioral traits.
- One person described the term to Insider as something between a red and a green flag.
Social media has become an obsessive place to dissect "red" and "green" flags in prospective partners — sometimes almost losing any meaning, where any trait can be labeled great or alarming.
These days, a new classification is arising on TikTok: "beige flags." Hordes of users on the app are using the term to expose their partners' funniest personality traits or inexplicable behavioral tics — things that don't fall squarely in the red or green flag territory, as one TikToker described it to Insider.
In one viral TikTok posted on Wednesday, user @mikegotchalk said his girlfriend's beige flag is not knowing "her left and rights" despite having a "GPS in her brain."
The TikToker Bronte Crawley made one of the trend's most popular videos, amassing over 9.5 million views in five days, wherein she outs her boyfriend's very specific quirk. According to Crawley, her boyfriend purposefully wears underpants with holes in them so he can surprise her by tearing them off suddenly and leaving only his waistband standing.
"He calls it the 'grand reveal' and it always happens when I least expect it," she wrote on-screen.
Comments are flooded with questions asking what a "beige flag" is, and joking that her boyfriend's habit is probably closer to a beloved green flag trait.
"Beige is a weird way to spell green," one top comment, with over 37,000 votes, read.
Crawley told Insider she thinks a beige flag is something between a positive and negative trait. "To me a beige flag is something not quite green and not quite red," she said.
"Although the flag I mentioned I might consider more on the green side, it's not a conventional trait you'd look for in a partner," she said about her viral TikTok. "And some people might consider it a red flag."
Nick Speer, an 18-year-old TikToker who made a popular video about how his girlfriend's beige flag is that she "will always make herself more comfortable" in any situation, agreed that it sits somewhere between red and green — or, perhaps, in its own category.
"It's just something that makes you think for a few seconds and say, 'Hmm that's weird,' and then you move on," he said.
The origin of the 'beige flag' appears to be from a TikToker
The term "beige flag" dates back to May 2022, when user @itscaito posted a video using the phrase. In her inaugural video, she claims to have coined the term, and added that she believes they are more prevalent in dating situations than red flags.
According to @itscaito, beige flags are attributes that suggest a potential partner could be "boring" (like if they have an opinion on pineapple pizza, or other chronically overused answers on dating profiles).
Her use of the phrase made news in 2022. However, over the last month, it seems to have not only gained massive new popularity with new users, but the term has also slightly changed its meaning. People are now using it to describe their significant others' silly or clumsy-yet-endearing traits.
The most popular videos under the hashtag "beige flags" have been posted this month, and several in just the last few days.
@Itscaito, who calls herself the "CEO of beige flags" in her TikTok bio, seems irritated by how the term's definition has crept away from its origins.
She made a TikTok earlier this week lightly mocking the new "beige flag" videos and reminding people why she invented the phrase.
"These are not beige flags. These are annoying slash disgusting things that your partner does," she said. "As you and I both know, a beige flag is something on a single person's dating profile that shows without meeting them that they might be really fucking boring."
"PEOPLE NEED TO RESPECT THE OG BEIGE FLAGGER," one viewer wrote.
Insider reached out to @itscaito for comment.
Despite her ire, the range for what's considered a beige flag has expanded greatly. And they can be incredibly random.
Examples include one person's boyfriend who has road rage but then acts super sweet in other scenarios; a woman who interrupts TV shows or movies every five minutes to ask what's going to happen next; and a partner who steathily holds a strawberry in their mouth to place it in their significant other's mouth when they kiss.
For the most part, the trend is light-hearted and well-intentioned. People seem to be enjoying the chance to share an odd trait with millions of strangers. Other users are then able to debate in the comment sections about how they feel about it, and whether the attribute is more of a red or green flag.
Speer told Insider that most of the comments he's received have been from other couples being able to see themselves in his beige flag videos.
"I like how it brings couples together and allows them to relate to each other in a fun, cute way," he said.