Legions' Lenny “Cornflakes” Busker

Belinda Mendoza

For my media critique, I decided to analyze the character Lenny Busker from the TV show Legion. Legion was created by Noah Hawley for the cable TV channel FX in conjunction with Marvel, as it is based off some of the X-Men comics. Part of the reason this series and this character in particular caught my attention was because I heard Aubrey Plaza, a young woman, was playing the part of a straight middle aged man named Lenny. I have a parasocial relationship with Aubrey Plaza and upon watching the first couple episodes I assumed Lenny was a lesbian and would therefore be perfect to study, as her character is a bit problematic.
Just One of The Boys
            Within the first two episodes of Legion, Lenny seems to be a lesbian. Her being a lesbian is first established when she is shown engaging in sexually suggestive dialogue with her best friend David, about Sydney, a fellow patient. Lenny objectifies Sydney just as another man would by commenting on her “titties” and behind, and by the second episode she talks about “finger banging” another woman who she refers to as a “bitch”. All of this recreates this sort of “boy-talk” or “locker room talk” dialogue associated with men and hegemonic masculinity. This then reifies the stereotype that lesbians are just like “one of the boys” and express desire in a masculine way (Lauretis 1988), ultimately taking on a very heteronormative tone.
Another Destructive Dead Lesbian
            Lenny seems to represent all the negative stereotypes and tropes pushed on queer characters in the media. She even contributes to dead lesbian syndrome (TV Tropes), with them showing her gruesome death in the very first episode, though she does end up reappearing throughout the season in David’s mind and memories. She is shown as mentally unstable and as a result is originally depicted patient in a mental hospital with an unkempt messy sort of appearance, instantly “othering” her. She is also a recovering drug addict, who is shown as being a bad influence on David, a straight male, and is seen in flashbacks egging him on to steal drugs or act reckless. These all support the idea that lesbians are not only self-destructive and self-negligent (Ross 2014), but drag down those around them as well. After finding out that Lenny is ultimately the villain, another role queer characters often have to play (Ross 2014), she even compares her relationship with David as parasitic, with her of course being the parasite.
Lesbian? No way!
            About half way during the season they then try to take away Lenny’s lesbian identity. It is explained that she is simply a manifestation of a man known as the Shadow King and is essentially all in David’s head. They also have her kiss David in the fifth episode, one episode directly after telling David she “doesn’t swing that way”, in reference to her not being sexually attracted to him. Though the dialogue affirmed her being a lesbian yet again, it would appear the director of the fifth episode, Tim Mielants, decided to add in a heterosexual kiss between her and David which served no purpose story or plot wise. Ultimately production was okay with making the character a lesbian dialogue wise, but when it came to showing any sort of physical attraction through interaction, they stripped her of her possible lesbian identity. Reaffirming the fact that the media at times is okay with implied or even overt queerness in dialogue, as long as they don’t have to see it (Ross 2014).
LGB-Time to Catch Up Marvel
            As mentioned in the introduction, this series was produced in conjunction with Marvel, and is based off of an X-Men comic series. Marvel while having diversified their comics with LGBT characters and themes in recent years, has had an incredible lack of it once they’re adapted to on screen (Imahote). LBGT characters are either erased, or not focused on as all once these comics are turned into TV shows and/or movies. In fact, Marvel didn’t feature it’s first onscreen LGBT character until November 2015, in the series of Jessica Jones which was exclusively streamed online through Netflix (Spata 2015). Even then, like with Lenny, the lesbian lawyer in Jessica Jones was another character that was originally a straight man (Spata 2015). This means Marvel has yet to include or focus on an originally LGBT comic book character in their onscreen media, and has also yet to put an out LGBT main character on broadcast television or in a movie in general. This could further explain why they seemed so hesitant to confirm Lenny’s lesbian identity as fact, and rather made it more ambiguous as the series progresses. Marvel seems to be hesitant to write and/or produce LGBT inclusive onscreen media, and instead seems to stick with their very straight, White, male, approach to comic related onscreen media, reinforcing hegemonic masculinity.
Conclusion
            Although casting a woman in a straight man’s role seems like it would be progressive, it doesn’t always turn out that way as shown in the case of Lenny. It seems as if production kind of wanted to have a token queer character in a series without having to actually write or think about creating a complex, nuanced, LGBT character. As a result, the character almost ends up being a caricature of what a real queer person would be, reinforcing negative stereotypes and leaving them as the unstable villain. However, even in doing all of this, they still couldn’t commit to having an overtly out lesbian character. More than halfway through the season they throw viewers off with a random straight kiss, and then have them questioning whether or not she is her own entity or if she’s just been a manifestation. In the conversion of Lenny’s character from straight man, to lesbian, to maybe not even existing at all, her sexuality leaves more questions than it does answers, and possibly does more harm to LGBT representation than it does good.

References:
IMBD (n.d) Legion. www.imbd.com

Imholte, Makenna E. (2015). Hollywood's Hindering of Homosexuality for Heroes: Sexuality in   Comic Books and Their Movies. Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection. 262.

Lauretis, T. (1988). Sexual indifference and lesbian representation. Theatre Journal, 40(2), 155.

Ross, K. (2014). No Hard Feelings, Questioning Queer Audiences, and ‘In Touch’ With The Female Body. The Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Media. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.          (pp. 207-223, 260-293)

Spata, C. (2016, October 20). 'Jessica Jones' Could Be Marvel's First Queer Lead. Complex.com. TV Tropes (n.d.). Bury Your Gays. www.tvtropes.org