Man oh man, we live in unusual times. Bye bye binaries, hello multi-hyphenates. But what does that all mean when it comes to defining masculinity in today’s world? What, indeed, maketh a man these days? And how do we detoxify the particularly toxic strain of masculinity that persists in the Philippines? We take a deep dive into all this with the artist Kristoffer Ardeña, who explores the meanings of “ang tunay na lalake” in his latest installation, Pagkalalake, a massive and provocative assemblage of idioms, expressions, slogans and utterances in English and the vernacular that challenge the traditional notions of masculinity in our society.
