My Boyfriend's Beige Flag

About

My Boyfriend's Beige Flag is a catchphrase used in a TikTok trend from May 2023 in which women share an anecdote about their boyfriend that they think qualifies neither as a "red flag" nor a "green flag," but rather as an ambiguous personality quirk that is nonetheless endearing. TikToks using the phrase began in early May 2023 and continued into June. The trend bears similarity to a 2022 trend about Beige Flags as an alternative to Red Flags, however, the older trend characterized beige flags as "boring" personality traits instead of quirky.

Origin

In early May 2023, TikTokers began to share videos about their boyfriend's "beige flags." TikToker^[1] @pen15_spam was an early adopter of the trend, posting a video on May 11th, 2023, that gathered over 9 million plays and 1 million likes in a month (seen below, left). TikToker^[2] @codyev posted a video on May 14th discussing beige flags as well, gathering over 9 million plays and 1 million likes in a month (seen below, right).

Spread

On May 27th, 2023, TikToker^[3] @popomatys posted a video about how their boyfriend's "beige flag" is that he doesn't "gossip." Examples given were about how he doesn't know where his sister works or why his best friend broke up his relationship. The post gathered over 12 million plays and 650,000 likes in five days (seen below).

On May 28th, 2023, Twitter^[4] user @JoshLekach posted a screenshot of the video above with the caption, "This is a green flag / Real men don't care too much about gossip." The post gathered over 39,000 likes in three days (seen below, left). On May 30th, Twitter^[5] user @pChalTV quote tweeted criticizing the post's characterization of gossip, gathering over 3,000 likes in two days (seen below, right).

On May 28th, Twitter^[6] user @book_struggles posted a screencap of a TikTok discussing beige flags, gathering over 75,000 likes in four days (seen below, left). On May 31st, Twitter^[7] user @thechosenberg also posted a tweet with a screenshot of a TikTok discussing beige flags, gathering over 3,000 likes in two days (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References