Fiona Glenanne of “Burn Notice,” dissected
Look, I like Gabrielle Anwar’s character, the gun-toting Fionia Glenanne, as much as the next red-blooded American male, but I never thought someone (other than maybe a few of the “Burn Notice” writers) could put together 650+ words on what she represents in a post-feminist world. But Ginia Bellafante of the New York Times did just that.
Fiona is a character with no memorable precedent: a genius joke-take on girls with gun lust, the joke being that above all else she is every woman who needs to be sent a copy of “He’s Just Not That Into You,” next-day delivery. In the show’s back story Michael broke up with Fiona years ago, disappearing without explanation. (I imagine this to have been like Berger dumping Carrie with a Post-it note on “Sex and the City,” except it occurred three feet from a terrorist cell.)
Fiona has never been able to get over Michael despite his persistent and explicit reminders that he is not made of the ordinary stuff of human need. Still, she keeps pushing for the dream, dating other people solely to try to make Michael jealous, interrupting stakeouts and shooting sprees and manhunts to ask for a key to his apartment or to tell him that what she would really like for her birthday is a teddy.
While reading the piece, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop — for Bellafante to criticize Anwar’s character for continuing to pine over her ex-boyfriend even after all these years. But that shoe never dropped. Bellafante genuinely admires Fiona and what she represents. Good stuff.
On a side note, anyone else remember the pilot episode where Fiona spoke with an Irish accent (which made sense because she used to be a member of the Irish Republican Army)? I thought they should have stuck with it, though the creators apparently thought otherwise.
Posted in: Burn Notice, News, Reviews, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas
Tags: Bruce Campbell, Burn Notice, Fiona Glenanne, Gabrielle Anwar, Ginia Bellafante, Jeffrey Donovan, New York Times
As a lover of Fiona Glenanne, I have to admit that your article is a bit vexing. But I do feel the need to make a note on your comment about Fiona in the first episode. She did indeed speak in an Irish accent and even dressed a bit differently. She dropped the accent and that style as a representation of her ability to adapt to situations and be able to blend in.
Why are you vexed by my article?
As for the Irish accent, you (and the writers) can explain it away however you/they want, but the simple fact of the matter is that the character in the pilot was supposed to have an Irish accent (and did) and somewhere along the line they (the writers, producers or network) decided to get rid of it. I think it would have added extra charm to the character.
Well damn. Guess I got too sucked in on the pilot. I hadn’t realized she had dropped the Irish accent. In my mind she still has it … I mean, she ex-IRA for Gods sake.
Is Fiona Glenanne anorexic? Cancerous perhaps? I have met 12 year olds larger than her. She appears to be just a couple of inches shy of being called a midget (OK, a small person- no wait- SHE IS A SMALL PERSON!!) And she is so thin, she makes starving children in Ethiopia look healthy. What a totally sickening sight- yes despite the attempts at glamorizing with the kiddy sized adult outfits and the quick flashes of leg and thigh- this woman is so unattractive and physically disgusting that a man would have to be a freakin pedophile to find her appealing! Oh- her acting is OK.
She is very skinny. No arguments here.
Whether or not she is “physically disgusting” is a matter of personal taste.
Big Dave–
As a small person- who you would also probably find disgusting (since I have gained 5 lbs since graduating from high school 10 years ago without lifting a finger)- I think Fiona is smoking hot and love her style. I think she is a total badass and love that she is able to look sexy and strong– a hard thing to do when you are build like a 12 year old (by today’s big mac antibiotic standards).
What I think the NYT writer left out is that I think she more represents a woman so smart and capable that she has a hard time dating. Michael isn’t just her ex, he is her best friend.
I am more puzzled that JP believes to be living in a post-feminist world. I am not sure what that means exactly.
That was Bellafonte’s term — post-feminist. Webster’s defines it this way:
: of, relating to, occurring in, or being the period following widespread advocacy and acceptance of feminism
I agree she looks like she’s dying. She does not look healthy but skeletal. And I don’t think she’s much of an actress. Haven’t you seen her in The Tudors? She can hardly make herself clear; she’s so starved her tongue is thick. How does she get any parts? Are her directors pedophiles?
I like slim, sexy women. Having stated that, I find Anwar to be completely unattractive. She isn’t slim. She’s unattractively bony.
When your spine pokes through to the point of looking like it’s laid on your back and your face takes on the look of a skull, you’ve gone past a certain point, and it does not look good.
Other than that, she’s just not a good looking woman, even facially. How old can she be, 38? Why so many wrinkles already?
She smokes. That’s why she has no many wrinkles at age 38. When will women realize just how much damage smoking does to your face?
Anwar has always been slim. I think she could stand to add a few pounds, but on the whole I think she looks great for 38.
I think she’s the one who burned Michael, Fights like a spy, can handle guns and she know alot of people. Who did Michael wake up to in the begining.
What are you people talking about?? She looks really good for 38. I do admit she could gain a few pounds, but otherwise, she looks better than most do at that age. And it would really ruin the show if she ends up being the one who burned Michael.
Leave her alone on the weight issue! My neice is now almost thirty and is 4′9″ tall, weighs 92 pounds. She has one hell of a time finding adult-appearing clothes but God made her small. She can eat me under the table–no eating disorder for her–and she’s just adorable, in my admittedly biased opinion. I guess you would find her unhealthy-looking and physically disgusting, too. I’m betting you’re no prize either, likely most women find you physically disgusting–I have no doubt they find you disgusting as a person. Here’s a clue–women aren’t attracted to men who call themselves “Big Dave.” I, on the otherhand am the opposite–tall and curvy–Big Dave would also probably find my body disgusting. Oddly enough, both my neice and myself are medically HEALTHY, as weight is not a determiner of health.
As a lesbian, I find Gabrielle gorgeous and a lovely actress as well. And, Anne, since when does being attracted to a nearly forty year old woman make me a pedophile? Her body, while slim and small, is clearly post-adolescent.
Yoh, feminist admirer! May I say that Fiona Glenanne is just the ticket for the beerhead wanna be’s out there. The kind of woman you want to have next to you when the barfight breaks out because she would be standing next to you, thowing blows, shooting, or defending your back as the situation called for. She is the tough guy’s tough girl. Unfortunately, when women take this role seriously they become more deadly than men and even less caring with twice the blood lust. When you hear about a woman who went crazy, shot people, killed some men defending her home and her near and dear, you don’t hear about how she dropped her purse, chipped her nails, or cared about anything other than going down in a blaze of glory. Most women who get gun crazy are even wilder than Fiona Glenanne, but I guess the author never met anyone from the IRA or a female who commits crimes regularly. A good example was the black woman in Phoenix who killed that informant after getting him to tearfully admit that he had informed on friends of hers, sending them to live in a cement cubicle for life, in order to spare himself the same plight. Hammered a 16d common nail into his head three inches while he was alive? Stabbed him over fifty times. What payback was she giving him that for. Did her friend or friends live through the same things? We will never know. But, women being wimpy? Not when they turn like this.
You people with the fantasy comments about bar fights and who woke up where are simply amazing! aA collective bunch of freakin idiotic retards! Forget the fantasy for moment and look at this freak of a human: she is clearly anorexic, she has no acting abilities at all, she is unattractive, and without argument, she does not, I repeat, DOES NOT look good for a woman of 38, 48, or 58- she looks sick-PERIOD. You freaks are clearly closet pedophiles because that is the only functional appeal she brings to the screen; an old anorexic hag appealing to the retarded pedohile!
Oh cum on guys, what’s that shit about pedophiles? That’s only ridiculous and nothing more.
Well, she’s thin – who cares? If you don’t like – then don’t watch! Me, I don’t like thin women normally, but she definetly has something about her, that makes her attractive. And since you don’t know her, you can’t say, she’s anorexic. Be serious!
And what is that shit about wrinkles and so? With nearly forty you just have wrinkles! That’s life. (She smokes? So do I! Who cares? Damn it, without all those “unhealthy” stuff life really would suck!) And in my opinion it’s absolutely okay. Much better a women with wrinkles than those Botox-monsters. And much better a woman who is grown-up than all those silly dumb-ass teenie-girls who all look the same.
Wow! Wrinkles are “normal” for 38 year olds. Now, that I would have never guessed.
I’m an 18 yr. old girl amd I somewhat look up to Anwar’s character–she’s strong (physically and emotionally) and independent and you don’t see a lot of women portrayed that way these days. And I read somewhere that she works out like crazy and does some kind of pilates/kickboxing routine.
You’re complaining about her attire and diet when you’re missing the small issue that she worked for the god damn IRA…you know, the terrorist organisation responsible for brutally slaughtering hundreds of defenseless civilians over a period of several decades. Nailbombing schoolchildren, that kind of thing. Does that encourage you to look up to her character?
I love how they always show her with a shotgun. If she ever fired a real one, it would break her arms.
Those of you who think Gabrielle is too thin, anorexic or unattractive clearly have poor taste in my opinion. There are many “adult” women who are small but quite attractive. You don’t have to be a pedophile to admire a woman’s beauty. As Sarah had mentioned earlier I think “she’s smoking hot”!