Al-Walada min al-Khasera (Born from the Loins, part one and two) was the sole full-length drama mini-series during the 2011 and 2012 Ramadan season in Syria to refer directly to the uprising against the Baathist regime. From the mentally ill mukhabarat officer who abuses his power, the government’s callous decimation of an impoverished neighborhood, to the unabashed connection of top government officials to organized crime, the mini-series tackles corruption through the lens of masculinity. In this mini-series, the presence of an embattled masculinity serves as a thinly veiled critique of the regime’s injustice. A recurrent theme is how political oppression creates a cyclical tradition of dominance and forced subservience in relationships. Discussions of part one and two of the mini-series have manifested the tension among intellectuals arising from the fact that Syrian cultures of resistance operate within an atmosphere of government co-optation. With the division widening during the uprising, some Syrians alleged that Redwan supports the regime, an accusation leveled against drama creators who critique the regime without facing punishment. Others argue that the government is too distracted and that dissident writers will pay the price later. Others contend that this mini-series is intended to paint a democratic façade to outside viewers. Some argue that this is tanfis (venting). Yet, if tanfis was intended as a means of releasing frustration in order to prevent the population from protesting the regime, then surely it loses its meaning since the 2011 uprising when the wall of fear was broken and resistance is a part of daily life. Because of the Baath regime’s effort to co-opt intellectuals, drama creators have had to walk a fine line to introduce their subversive ideas. Recently it has been argued that while the previous generation was engaged in a struggle to widen the boundaries of accepted discourse, this generation is implicated in “the whisper strategy,” encouraging a comfortable dialogue with power. I argue that while there are some intellectuals the regime manages to “buy,” this kind of generalization not only presents intellectuals as a monolithic group, but also discredits their attempts to engage in innuendo and word artistry to subvert state rhetoric. In this presentation that focuses on the recent screenplays of Samer Redwan, I return agency to the artist, by examining the multi-faceted ways this drama creator uses constructions of masculinity to engage in political critique.