The discourse of masculinity in literature has received a relatively lesser attention in the literary sphere of gender criticism. The dearth has invoked masculinity as a mere referent rather than a discourse to be engaged in, thereby reinforcing the depictions of stereotypical male dominance in literary interpretations. The purpose of this qualitative research was to engage in the discourse of masculinity in the contemporary Philippine short fiction. Through the literary approaches of queer theory and deconstruction, this qualitative literary research utilizing content analysis aimed to analyze the male personae’s character traits, resolutions, masculine stereotypes, and the subversions of the stereotypes. The analysis of the character traits revealed that while the male personalities were portrayed with stereotypical dominance and authority, they were mostly portrayed with non-stereotypical traits of expressiveness, emotional instability, and temperamental traits. The analysis of their resolutions revealed that they either evaded from or succumb to their situations and adversities, directly confronted their adversities, oruse authority, influence, violence, and dominance. Furthermore, the masculine stereotypes established by the short stories were all subverted by the male personae expected to perform them, thereby rendering the masculinity constructs as unstable and thus evidencing the dismantling of the texts.
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