written by Crystal-Angelee Burrell

What if women were free to confront masculinity without risk, threat, or burden? That’s the question that frames Talk to HIM, an audiovisual collaboration between artists Imani Shanklin Roberts and Raya Kassisieh. Their treatise against toxic masculinity invites resentment, strain, and love to dance together towards mindful masculinity. In an online submission form, Imani and Raya asked women from marginalized backgrounds to be candid about how they’ve experienced masculinity.

For 15 minutes, one woman’s voice narrates these women’s responses in a tone and cadence as varied as the dozens of women whose voices helped write it. Meanwhile, there are men—and male-identifying people—who react to this disjointed poetry on video. Their collective discomfort begins to reveal the pressures of masculinity. Talk to HIM explores the degree to which unexamined, toxic masculinity harms the very men who embody it.

The creators intended to temper angry venting with empathy. For instance, the piece calls out men’s “freedom to be mediocre” in almost the same breath as addressing the disproportionate suicide rate among men. Raya says viewers are “confronting the masculine,” which she hopes will “reinstate a line of communication that is not so often crossed—not even in the most intimate of relationships.” Imani hopes Talk to HIM “makes us curious about old pattens of communicating and relating that are harmful, dishonest, dysfunctional, and oppressive.”

Talk to HIM was born after Imani and Raya were cornered by men after a night out. Most women can relate: he’s swearing at you for not smiling at him; he’s following you home and you can’t find your keys; he’s breathing on your neck, but you said “No”. Both women wanted to understand how they would’ve responded to the men that night if they weren’t afraid of male retaliation, and they wanted to give other women the chance to do the same. When asked about how she hoped Talk to HIM would make progress towards healing the masculine and feminine relationship, Imani said it’s about being responsible for how we show up in the world and being honest about the constructs men and women have built around each other. Importantly, she emphasized that mutual vulnerability was paramount to disarming masculinity. Imani shared that creating this project was both “illuminating and transformative,” because it helped reveal moments where she had been complicit in silencing herself.

At the virtual screening of Talk to HIM, Imani and Raya emphasized “intentional healing” and “deep, honest conversations.” Viewers will be hard-pressed to walk away from the film at MoCada unchanged or, at least, unchallenged.