[imagesource: Getty Images]
Can’t find love? Or do you keep bonking into the wrong kind of love?
Blame TikTok.
Since a fair share of humanity is turning to the video-sharing app for advice, your dating life may be going haywire.
The art of vabbing is apparently popular, which is when you dab vaginal fluid on your body like a special pheromone perfume.
If you think that’s strange, consider some of the other bizarre dating trends that NewsAU has outlined.
Let’s get those out the way, and then we will talk about the widespread fascination with yoni juice.
Since dating apps introduced voicenote features that allow you to record messages for potential dates to listen to (Hinge is big on this), the creepy trend of voice-fishing has propped up.
It is basically catfishing but involves hiding your true appearance behind a sexier, more appealing voice, which can end up disappointing a date when they find out that’s not how you actually sound.
While this dating trend shows people’s propensity to be incredibly picky, another one is celebrating a more laidback approach. That’ll be what has been dubbed ‘the lazy one-night stand’.
It’s the 2022 version of a late-night booty call, which involves posting a thirst trap to a select group of targets using the “close friends” feature on Instagram and hoping one of them takes the bait.
You can imagine this can get rather heated with some men sharing more than what was initially bargained for.
Most worrying of all is the trend to ‘stay toxic’, which is essentially a way to get someone’s attention using manipulative tactics:
An example getting a lot of attention on TikTok advises women to send a text at 1am to a guy who cancelled on her stating: “I’m here.”
This eludes to the man who lost interest that you have someone else lined up to take his place, hence the “toxic” name – as let’s be honest, using these tricks are never going to secure a healthy, happy relationship.
The bad advice #staytoxic videoes have been racking up millions and millions of views:
@alexandraozz✨Stay toxic✨♬ Original Sound – Unknown
That seems like an obvious joke, but young, impressionable minds might see it as effective and actually try to implement it.
Alright, back to the trend of using vaginal discharge to lure ’em in.
Woman’s Health notes how TikTok has become a treasure trove of women claiming that this works, but experts are less convinced.
While pheromone research is nothing new, and the study of human chemical communication has been widely investigated, there is not a strong body of evidence to suggest that pheromones work in humans the same way they work in animals.
Probably because humans don’t have a functioning vomeronasal organ, which is the sensory organ found in the roof of the mouth of many animals which helps them sniff out a mate of the same species through scent alone.
Nonetheless, renowned sex and relationship expert Tracey Cox believes that vabbing could work on a psychological level:
‘I believe it helps attract a mate for psychological reasons. It puts your mind in the right place. It’s a conscious acknowledgement you make with yourself that “yes, I do want sex.”
That makes you interact differently with people. You’re more flirtatious.’
Someone from Cosmopolitan tried vabbing out for themselves and came to a similar conclusion, albeit in a rather roundabout and hilarious way.
Sex and relationship therapist Jodie Slee adds to this by saying, “If vabbing helps women realise that their natural body odour is not just normal but attractive, then this is something I can get on board with.”
Just as long as you wash your hands before and after vabbing, don’t have a strange odour that suggests or is a sure sign of an infection (if this is the case, please get checked by a doctor), and don’t let anyone touch the vabbed areas, then go ahead.
The dating world is clearly your oyster.
[sources:newsau&womanshealth]
[imagesource:renemagritte.org] A René Magritte painting portraying an eerily lighted s...
[imagesource: Alison Botha] Gqeberha rape survivor Alison Botha, a beacon of resilience...
[imagesource:mcqp/facebook] Clutch your pearls for South Africa’s favourite LGBTQIA+ ce...
[imagesource:capetown.gov] The City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee has approved the...
[imagesource:drugwatch] Jassis, Yaz. This is a full-blown mess. In what appears to b...