It can be hard enough finding a significant other; keeping the relationship alive is a whole other beast. However, Jessica Gentile over at Cosmopolitan has some simple advice to strengthen your bond with your current boyfriend or girlfriend: don’t hold in your farts. Yep. Passing gas is apparently the secret to relationship success.
Gentile shares some third date, burrito-induced horror that actually brought the two of them closer together.
I clogged his toilet.
An incident this mortifying can make or break a couple. I was sure this would be the humiliating demise of a potentially blossoming relationship. Instead, the foul odor I produced only brought out the sweetness, compassion, and humor in both of us.
Seven years later, we got married.
Honestly, this isn’t terrible advice. Let’s be real: gross bodily functions are an inevitable thing, so you might as well admit to your humanity and laugh it off. Gentile goes on to explain how arbitrary cultural taboos can really be detrimental to a relationship.
If honesty and openness are key components to any healthy relationship, why hide the inevitable? If you and your partner are dedicated to telling each other everything, why leave out the most basic component of your biology? Because society deems it gross and unseemly? Cultural taboos are dumb. Gendered expectations (think: “real ladies don’t talk about farts” or even worse, “real ladies don’t fart”) are even dumber.
So there you have it, folks: don’t hold it in, and your relationship may live another day. Being your disgusting, authentic self is just the best option.
(Via Cosmopolitan, H/T Death and Taxes)