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Politics & Power Quote by Francesca Annis

"Thank God we're not like America: everyone wants to look like they're 20. In Europe we admire grown-up women. I think men revere older women"

About this Quote

There’s a sly provocation tucked into Francesca Annis’s “Thank God we’re not like America”: she’s not just praising Europe, she’s poking at the transatlantic economy of youth. The line works because it sounds like breezy dinner-party honesty while smuggling in a blunt critique of how beauty gets monetized. “Everyone wants to look like they’re 20” isn’t an observation so much as an indictment of a culture that sells timelessness as a subscription plan - injectables, filters, “anti-aging” everything - and then pretends it’s personal choice.

Annis speaks as an actress, which sharpens the subtext. Acting is a profession where a face is both instrument and invoice, and where women are routinely treated as expiring assets. Her gratitude (“Thank God…”) carries the emotional residue of a career spent negotiating that contract: be desirable, but not demanding; be visible, but not older than the story wants. Framing Europe as a place that “admires grown-up women” is aspirational branding, a way to claim moral sophistication against a Hollywood pipeline that equates relevance with tight skin.

The closing claim - “I think men revere older women” - is the most revealing. It’s half reassurance, half strategy: a bid to rewrite desire as respect, to swap “still attractive” for “worth listening to.” It also quietly dodges the harder truth: reverence can be another kind of distance, a pedestal that flatters while keeping power intact.

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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Annis, Francesca. (2026, January 17). Thank God we're not like America: everyone wants to look like they're 20. In Europe we admire grown-up women. I think men revere older women. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/thank-god-were-not-like-america-everyone-wants-to-33198/

Chicago Style
Annis, Francesca. "Thank God we're not like America: everyone wants to look like they're 20. In Europe we admire grown-up women. I think men revere older women." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/thank-god-were-not-like-america-everyone-wants-to-33198/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Thank God we're not like America: everyone wants to look like they're 20. In Europe we admire grown-up women. I think men revere older women." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/thank-god-were-not-like-america-everyone-wants-to-33198/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Francesca Add to List
Francesca Annis on Aging, Beauty, and Cultural Differences
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About the Author

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Francesca Annis (born May 14, 1944) is a Actress from England.

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