Recently I had the opportunity to present a paper at the American Society for Aesthetics. The panel I sat on was on Slavery and Cinema. My paper was entitled “Man Up, Man Down: Django Unchained and Black Masculinity.” In the paper, I explore hegemonic masculinity in the Old South and explained how Django, in comparison with the character Stephen, rejected it and carved out a more virtuous character. I also gave some lessons as well as warnings from the film.
The pictures below are courtesy of Luvell Anderson who also gave a talk on rap at another session. Lets just say, he should stick with philosophy of language and not photography.
Presentation on Django and Masculinity