Hey, Lulu here, whether we are romping through science, music, politics, technology, or feelings,

we seek to leave you seeing the world anew.

Radio Lab adventures right on the edge of what we think we know, wherever you get podcasts. This is The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry.

Jonathan Majors is a rising star in Hollywood.

He won critical praise for his performance in 2019's The Last Black Man in San Francisco,

breathed new life into the Rocky Series spinoff as a memorable opponent in Creed 3, and made his debut as the villainous Kang in this year's Ant Man and the Wasp, Quantummania.

Now, Majors also appeared on the cover of the February issue of Ebbing. This year is Ant Man and the Wasp, Quantum Mania.

Now, Majors also appeared on the cover of the February issue of Ebony Magazine.

For the print edition, he was wearing a shaggy pink coat over a shirtless chest, legs crossed

in blue jeans lined with red accents.

And in the digital version of the cover, Majors is in boxing shoes and shorts

draped lazily over a pink chair, a bouquet of red roses spilling from his relaxed grip.

Now, the images evoke a kind of 1970s cool and radiate a vulnerable masculinity that is a hallmark of Majors' work.

Many of us loved this cover. But some black men and women criticized it as a gender performance

that inappropriately feminized black men.

Majors discussed the response to his Ebony cover in a conversation with NPR's Aisha Rosco.

I'd just be curious. Tell me what masculinity is. I wouldn't want to walk up on me in the street.

But it's bigger than that, it's love. You know, it's like there's awareness, and then there's acknowledgement of ignorance.

A big part of it's kindness, use of power, gentleness.

These are masculine characteristics.

It's quite unmasculent to try to emasculate another man.

Then, at the end of March,

...