Javier Cardona's dance/theater piece Ah mén, created in 2004, is an exploration of masculinity as a social construct. Through the recreation of visual, verbal and bodily texts, six dancer/actors perform the intricate networks of prescription, transmission and enforcement of normative masculinity as maintained by social institutions such as family, church, school and the state. By rendering evident the dynamics of power and violence linked to notions and expectations of masculinity in our collective unconscious, the performers provoke the audience to re-think our preconceptions of what means to "be a man."