The 2025 archetype gift guide: The Performative Male

2025 has been the year of the performative male. By now, you’ve probably seen innumerable thinkpieces, memes, and TikToks about this matcha-drinking, tote-bag-toting subgenre of man, if not encountered one of their kind in the wild. You know the type: they update their Letterboxd account with the stringency of a 17th-century Puritan; they have oddly strong opinions about coffee; their bookshelves are stuffed with titles from Sally Rooney and bell hooks (and there’s a 60 per cent chance they haven’t even read them). And, of course, they’re often guilty of bigging up their feminist credentials in order to curry favour with women – wokefishing, if you will. But they’re not all bad… if you have a performative male in your life, here’s what to gift them this Christmas.