Why Are We Calling Manhattan Boy Martini?

First it was 'girl dinner', then 'boy kibble', now the latest terminology that's making the rounds in city bars is 'boy martini'. Why are we infantilizing things? And what is boy martini, anyway?

Another day of rabbit-holing on Twitter, I landed on a video posted early this year about a bartender recommending a 'Boy Martini' to a young lad who asked for a regular Manhattan cocktail.

Firstly, give the man what he wants dude. Secondly, why do we need to call a martini, a boy martini? Who made them exclusive to men only? And since when?

The video that racked up over 3 million views on social media was apparently a skit posted by the owners of the kitschy bar somewhere in the United States, was imitated by several bars on their social media handles to popularise the bloody boy martini!

Yes, of course, martini had a great year in 2025. It was celebrated as the year of martini due to its massive resurgence in popularity and was driven by savory umami flavour profiles, ultra-chilled aesthetics, and Gen Z appeal. While the Margarita remains the top volume seller, the Martini cemented itself as the cultural drink of the year. In India particularly, the Pornstar Martini ruled bar orders.

The craze amongst the Gen Z over Martinis might be a telling sign as to why the rebranding of the hypermasculine drink might be taking place. The cocktail has severely be debated in popular culture for often being associated as a man's drink and further legitimised through hypermasculine figures like James Bond, Roger Sterling of Mad Men, and author Ernest Hemingway. For far too long, the Martini has functioned as a purchasable aesthetic that promises power and anti-effeminacy. Moreover, while hypermasculinity links the performance of stoicism to alcoholism, self-harm, and reluctance to seek mental health help, the Martini aestheticises the dangerous side of this spectrum. It is not stirred, its shaken.

So, is a Boy Martini actually the same as a Manhattan or is it some new concoction we're supposed to order to prove we're in on the joke? The joke that is a tongue-in-cheek rebranding of a Manhattan cocktail that shares many of the qualities people associate with a martini: its boozy, spirit-forward, shaken not stirred qualities.

The punchline essentially is 'what if whiskey drinkers had their own martini but its still what it used to be'.

Which further raises a more interesting question: why did the joke resonate in the first place?

Like "girl dinner," "boy math," and "boy sober," the Boy Martini belongs to a growing lexicon that recasts adult behaviour in the language of childhood. ( And when adult behaviour is reframed in childlike terms, does it become easier to overlook, excuse, or trivialise it?) Everyone is suddenly a boy or a girl again. The terminology is usually deployed ironically, but its popularity points to a culture increasingly comfortable with infantilising itself. Adulthood has become something to parody, soften, or avoid altogether.

At the same time, the joke only works because cocktails still remain burdened by decades of gendered assumptions.