A viral test – dubbed the "orange peel theory" – has caused a stir online.
The online trend, which has been circulating on social media, involves checking if your partner does small gestures for you without being asked. This can be as simple as peeling an orange on your behalf, hence the name.
However, if they don't respond in this way, it could be a red flag. And it's even led to some people ending their relationships.
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It all started when Jenna, who posts uner the username @jennaskates, sparked the conversation when she shared how her boyfriend separated egg whites for her because of her long nails. The seemingly small but hugely kind and thoughtful act sparked a huge debate over what to accept in a relationship.
So one woman decided to test it on her boyfriend to see how he'd do and shared her experience on Reddit. She wrote: "My boyfriend of seven months was sitting on the couch when I saw the TikTok video explaining the theory, and I decided I should try it out.
"Up to this point we were happy but now looking back on it I am not surprised by how he responded. I asked him to tie my hair up for me and he looked at me and asked me why I couldn't do it. At first, I thought that maybe he was intimidated by my long hair, however, he has had long hair in the past and knew how to tie it up.
"I asked him again thinking it was just a fluke but he told me that I could do it since I was in the kitchen and he needed to relax stating that he just got off work. I know what y'all are thinking 'Let that man relax he just got off' but y'all he works from home... and even if he was truly tired he has plenty of energy to play games and go out to the bar with his friends.
"Regardless, I honestly didn't want to break up and thought it was dumb to throw a relationship away over a TikTok... well that was until later in the day when I asked him if he could toss a towel in the dryer so I could be warm when I got out of the shower since I forgot to do it myself. Surprise surprise, he never did it and it just made me realise how much I do for him and his daughter that is not even mine!"
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The woman later revealed in a follow-up that this had caused her to reevaluate her relationship and that she had decided to break up with her boyfriend. She added: "I admit that I should not have taken advice from TikTok and that it showed immaturity to do so. However, the method worked and made me see that I do a lot more for him than he does for me."
"Our relationship is not going to end because of my towel not being warm or my hair not being up, but because I realise that I am just settling for a lazy man who doesn't take me out, doesn't help out with his baby and has no motivations in life except to live at his parents' house, play video games and drink."
After reading her post on Reddit, lots of people agreed that taking relationship advice from TikTok wasn't great. But it did open her eyes to what he was really like — meaning the theory worked.
Other people shared how lovely their own partners were. One user wrote: "My husband will get me coffee or get up to turn off the light because I am comfy and don't want to move. He will do things for me even though I am completely capable of doing them. Acts of service showing your loved ones that you love them."
Another TikTok user chimed in: "I always feel like some people who post orange theory on TikTok get it, and some don't, and the ones who don't make the whole thing look stupid. The point of it isn't just to randomly demand your partner do something that you can do that you just don't want to, the point is to see if they'll do something small for you that you asked them to within reason and that last bit is what sometimes gets lost."
They continued: "As you said, if my wife just plopped down on the couch with an orange and said 'peel this for me,' I'd say 'you have hands.... You do it'. But if she said 'I hurt my hand and can't get this open, can you do it for me?' or 'can you start this for me? I can't ever get them started,' something, I'd absolutely do it without a second thought. That's kind of how I've always viewed it — small acts of service between people who love each other, not acts of servitude."
* This article was crafted with the help of an AI tool, which speeds up Daily Star's editorial research. An editor reviewed this content before it was published. You can report any errors to starletters@dailystar.co.uk
