The Roots of Desire Quotes

“All the action adventure girls have red hair," he said. "Whenever it is an independent girl, not a sidekick person, when she has her own mind or does as good as the guys, she has red hair.”
― Marion Roach, The Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning, and Sexual Power of Red Hair

“On Satan the color red is one thing; on women, it is altogether another”
― Marion Roach, The Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning, and Sexual Power of Red Hair

“This is because I define myself in part by my color. And I know it is the proverbial slippery slope: That there are associations with red hair that I utterly reject and others I wear proudly means nothing to anyone else, since I don't get to choose how the observer sorts those same traits. Grazing through the stereotypes, I am on the delicatessen plan, winding a way over the menu offerings, picking, choosing and rejecting; adhering to some, dismissing others. Having adopted a method of personal vigilance that allows me to be on the lookout for associations that suffuse my color with preferred associations and to reject those I choose not to adopt, I enhance my self-image. But to other people my red hair is more a take-it-or-leave-it experience: Red-haired, to them, I may also be a certain type of person, complete with temperament.”
― Marion Roach, The Roots of Desire: The Myth, Meaning, and Sexual Power of Red Hair