What a boy wants

GIFTS. Poor women, and poor gay men. When it comes to Valentine’s Day, they are bombarded with ads telling people what to buy them (Flowers! Chocolates! Diamonds can’t hurt!) but are given no clue what to give their boyfriends and husbands.

There’s the obvious, of course — beer, sex or a signed Eli Manning game jersey — but David Eigen, psychologist and author of “Men: The Gods of Love,” encourages gift-givers to give it a little thought. “I think the first thing to consider is who is the man? What kind of man is he?” says Eigen. “For the Wall Street baron or a person interested in money, obviously a sweet dinner with a handmade card is gonna fly like a lead balloon, whereas a sensitive guy would love it.”

The key, says Eigen, is to make sure you’re considering what the guy wants, not what you’d want.

“People think, ‘That’s cute,’ and then get it for him,” he says, but gifting should be about the recipient, not the giver. Tickets to a hockey game, he suggests, would let a huge Rangers fan know that you’d considered his likes.

“Let you know you see them,” says Eigen about men. “They feel like doers and providers. Men are really shut down on [some] levels. We need to stimulate them to feel.” So, that means socks and ties are probably out this year. A case of beer, however, never goes out of style.