What exactly is a #beigeflag? The term was originally coined by an Australian woman in 2022 to refer to the traits people commonly list on dating profiles but that reveal very little about who they actually are. (Examples include liking travel, being a fan of The Office and preferring dogs over cats.) 

Since then, the term has become one of the hottest trends on TikTok, accumulating over a billion views. In the process, it has evolved to describe a trait in a partner that’s neither good nor bad, just a bit weird or boring. These idiosyncratic quirks can be as mundane as setting timers instead of alarms, or having to keep the coffee mugs in the kitchen in a certain order. Others are slightly less anodyne, such a boyfriend’s predilection for eating ants he finds around the house, or ...