It’s great that the men in black now include women. But the franchise really shouldn’t change its name.
“Men in Black: International” comes out Friday, and the series has replaced the iconic duo of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones with younger faces: Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. If you’ve seen the trailer, you already know that the movie makes a big deal of adding a female lead.
“We are the men in black,” Agent H (Hemsworth) says near the end of the trailer. “The men — and women — in black.” After making his important addition, he turns around to give Agent M (Thompson) a thumbs up.
The pandering is a little on the nose, and from all appearances, the film looks like a solidly OK summer flick. But making its language more gender inclusive wouldn’t make it any better.
Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers pokes fun at the movie’s self-awareness, citing a scene in which Agent M talks with Agent O, played by Emma Thompson, just so the film passes the Bechdel Test. Travers writes, “‘Don’t start,’ says O wryly when Molly — now known as Agent M — asks: Why it isn’t Men and Women in Black? Times Up and all that.”
At the New York premiere of the film Wednesday, Thompson answered her own question. Speaking of a conversation with Emma Thompson about the inclusiveness of the name “Men in Black,” she said it may not be time for a change — yet.
“She said something great, like, ‘I’ve had the conversation; it takes time.’ And I think what she’s speaking to is the fact that sometimes change happens quicker than we have language to describe it,” Thompson said.
Thompson admits, though, that the alternatives are not necessarily appealing.
“I pitched some ideas like ‘People in Black,’ but that would be ‘PiB,’ which sounds like a sandwich. I pitched ‘Humans in Black,’ which would be ‘HiB,’ which … sounds like something you don’t want to get,” Thompson said.
As awkwardly as “Men in Black: International” handled the gender issue, Thompson has a point. We may not have the language to describe precisely what we mean, especially in a few words, but at least “Men in Black” actually did something by adding a female lead.
It doesn’t discount her role if the film’s name still advertises “men.” There’s nothing wrong with using shorthand such as “man” or “mankind” for humanity, not that most students in a gender studies class would agree. The important thing is less about whether “men” are in the title and more about how the women are portrayed.
The in-your-face virtue signaling of “Men in Black: International” may be annoying, but it could be worse. At least it doesn’t have that character from “Legally Blonde” who campaigns to change “semester” to “ovester.” Some words just don’t have the power we ascribe to them.
