Deeming a romantic associate “the one” can be as simple as falling deeply in love. But for some, it’s about that person passing a few tests. These tests, which are in essence merely teenage love games, run the gamut from ridiculous to necessary.

I recently caught up with one of my male friends over brunch. Blame it on the mimosas, but at some point he mentioned that one of his boys was engaged, and that prior to proposing to his fiancee, the groom-to-be asked him, “How do I know if she is the one.” His advice:  “Fart in front of her and see how she responds.”

I was slightly disgusted, yet amused and intrigued. Did he say a woman’s response to flatulence was an indicator of whether or not she’s marriage material? We are taught in childhood that there is something repulsive, if not downright inappropriate about one of the body’s most natural processes, and yet men are now using that as a test of love?

I slowly began to think about all the men that had passed gas in my presence. I wondered if it was a test to see if I was the one, or just simply undigested food making its presence known in their large intestines. The question arose: How comfortable do you have to be to actually pass gas in front of someone?

Ironically, the person that stayed in my head was another one of my brunch-mate’s friends, that I’d seen off and on for a few years while I lived in Atlanta. He was a habitual farter.  The first time it happened I was stunned.  It was something like a roll of thunder. I don’t know if he tried to hold it in at all, but him passing gas on the way to the bathroom woke me up five minutes before the alarm I’d set on my cell phone. I laid there silently for a second, and then asked the only question I knew to ask, “Did you just fart?” He laughed it off as if I’d ask him something completely absurd. But for me this was a serious turning point. The man I’d been dating for several months had trumpeted his first of many morning farts, in front of me.

Was it love? Hell no. It’s been years since my sleep has been interrupted by the sound of him breaking wind, but for that aforementioned Groom-to-be it meant more—he popped the question one month after she passed the test, and she accepted.

Is passing gas in front of your mate a sign of love and comfort or just disrespect?

TAGS: love, Men, Relationships, sueZette yasmin robotham, WOMEN