Expert issues major warning over new 'Shrekking' dating trend that could have serious repercussions

An expert has warned against a new dating trend that took its name from the popular Skrek movie.

Okay, so this doesn’t involve swamps, onions, dragons or donkeys - but that doesn’t mean it’s harmless.

In fact, the latest dating trend can be considered toxic, with a relationship expert warning people to steer clear.

Known as Shrekking, the term has the ability to hurt you and the person you’re with.

We’ve covered all kinds of bad dating trends, from monkey barring to breadcrumbing and more, but Shrekking is totally different.

Unlike monkey barring, it isn’t the act of hopping from one relationship to another.

Instead, Shrekking is the act of dating someone you consider to be beneath your level and believing that you’re out of their league.

As the person who is on another level, you’ll then think you have the upper hand, and dating down means that you’re less likely to get your heart broken.

However, if you ‘get shrekked’, you’ll only find out that it doesn’t matter if you’re consciously dating below what you deem to be right for you, you’ll still get hurt and be left heartbroken.

It might seem that the person is strategically dating down because they won’t want to risk the pain of being broken up with, but it’s really a toxic mentality that’s being appeased.

According to an expert, it’s the type of mentality which perpetuates the belief that we all have a certain value based on superficial factors.

This could be looks, wealth or status.

To say that you got Shrekked by someone implies that they didn’t have the right to be with you in the first place - and certainly didn’t have the right to be ungrateful to you for choosing to date them.

The reason Shrek comes into this is because if you look at the Shrek and Fiona (pre-ogre transformation) relationship, Shrek is the ‘ugly’ one of the two.

A lot of the reason as to why he didn’t pursue a relationship with the princess was because of how people saw him, and how he saw himself in comparison to her.

Relationship editor, Kayla Kibbe at Cosmopolitan wrote that Shrekking is ‘gross and dehumanizing’.

She explained: “If you find yourself in a position to get Shrekked, you were never in a position to find real relationship success in the first place.”

She shared that if you’re dating down to prevent heartbreak, then you're dating from a place of avoidance and this can hurt you and the person you're with.

Kibbe went on to break down the cold, hard truth to those who constantly date people who they think are inferior, calling into question their deep-rooted fears.

She wrote: “If you are in this situation, it’s because you put yourself in this situation by trying to avoid it. Cruel, I know. But defense mechanisms work great until they don’t!”

She added: “This may be a sign it’s time to take a break from dating, reflect on what you really want from your love life and why, and maybe even consider chatting with a therapist to work through some unresolved feelings from past relationships.”

Similarly, people online haven’t taken too kindly to the name of the trend either and have called out daters for making others feel bad about themselves, or putting themselves on a pedestal.

One person wrote: “It’s not OK to belittle someone or put them down through name-calling. We’re not in grade school anymore.”

Another flipped the narrative, writing: “There's a online dating thing we men call "Getting Fiona'd" it's when her profile pics look like Princess Fiona but we meet in person and they are catfish Fiona and look nothing like their profile picture.”

Someone else said: “I had a drop dead gorgeous wife who was an insufferable diva. My bad for valuing appearance more than character back when I was young and stupid.”