'Goblintimacy' is a dating trend that flips all the rules. Be careful.

What if, instead of showing up on a first date as the most polished, put together version of yourself, you instead showed up as, well... a goblin?

It may sound counterintuitive. But daters are doing it − and they're calling it "goblintimacy."

While some dating trends involve concealing your truest self (ahem, "kittenfishing," ahem), goblintimacy is the exact opposite: You show up fully as you, for better or worse. That means not hiding any flaws, and being upfront about your baggage from the beginning.

The idea is that, by revealing your inner "goblin" off the bat, you'll weed out partners who would never be right for you in the long run. After all, everyone's inner goblin comes out eventually. Why not get it out of the way sooner rather than later?

As you can probably imagine, the pros and cons to this approach are pretty steep.

"Goblintimacy is the dating cousin of 'goblin mode,'" says Amy Chan, a dating coach and the author of "Unsingle: How to Date Smarter and Create Love that Lasts." "It's a rebellion against showing up on dates performing a curated version of who you think someone wants and, instead, showing up as your real, authentic, actual self − quirks, flaws and imperfections included."

Daters are embracing 'goblintimacy.' How did we get here?

In the era of dating apps − and, now, the rise of artificial intelligence − it makes sense some daters want nothing less than radical honesty in the early stages of courtship, says Damona Hoffman, a dating coach and the author of "F the Fairy Tale: Rewrite the Dating Myths and Live Your Own Love Story." Instead of presenting the best version of themselves, daters are being unapologetically real. Maybe even little too real.

"I understand the pull of goblintimacy, because people are really tired of artifice and fakery right now," Hoffman says. "There's a lot of questioning what is real and what is not. And there is a fatigue around trying to play the game of dating. ... Daters have realized that the rules, the hacks, they don't work universally, that it's much more about finding someone who sees the real and authentic you and is interested and attracted to that."

It's not totally off-base, either. If your goal is a long-term relationship, then, yes, your partner will see the real you eventually. Plus, Chan says, showing up as your authentic self, instead of performing or pretending, can help alleviate anxiety and make you more relatable and, thus, attractive.

"There's nothing wrong with the mindset behind goblintimacy," Chan says. "But being yourself should not be confused with a low-effort, apathetic approach to dating. Showing up to a first date looking like you didn't try isn't goblintimacy. It's just not caring and, quite frankly, disrespectful."

When 'goblintimacy' backfires

There's a fine line between authenticity and oversharing. There's also a fine line between over-curating yourself and being a slob.

The problem with goblintimacy, Hoffman says, is that it takes something good − authenticity − and risks pushing it to a disrespectful extreme. After all, putting your best foot forward on a date isn't being fake. It's showing you care.

"The part that I don't like is, who wants to date a goblin?" Hoffman says. "Sometimes I'll hear from daters this attitude of, 'Well, I'm not going to try. I just want to be totally real, let it all hang out. If you don't like me, then that's your problem. Thank you, next.' ... Courtship used to look very different, even a few generations ago. You still have to present yourself in a way where the other person feels like you care."

Overall, she says, goblintimacy stems from the collective frustration so many singles share around dating right now. For those who feel they've done all the right things but still haven't found love, letting their inner goblin loose might seem like the one thing left they haven't tried.

"They've twisted themselves into pretzels, they've optimized their profile, they're doing all the things and they're just burnt out on dating, because they're getting mixed results or disappointing results," Hoffman says. "The answer is not, well, let's go 180 in the opposite direction and present the worst version of ourselves and see if that is something that will attract people more."

The other thing to keep in mind, Chan says, is that real intimacy is earned, not owed. Just because you reveal your inner goblin on the first date, doesn't mean your date is obligated to reveal theirs back to you.

"Rapport takes time to build," Chan says. "Thinking you can show up on a first date and divulge all your deepest secrets, flaws and issues and expect a stranger is going to embrace that is delusional."

Instead, she says, you can break the ice on intimate subjects at an appropriate pace over time.

"You can ask questions that allow the conversation to go beyond the surface, so you can self-disclose and get the conversation to go deeper. For instance, 'What’s a book or movie that changed the way you see things?' That's going from zero (talking about the weather) to five. Then, once you have some back-and-forth at level five of intimacy, you can go from five to 10. You see, trust and rapport and connection are built bit by bit, with both people mutually participating."