Clara Parrish

“But there was nothing of the southern bigot about her. On the Memphis street where Marilyn lived, there were only blacks for playmates, the children of servants who worked for the neighbors and her own relatives. The difference in color was meaningless to a little girl seeking companionship; that attitude never changed in adult life.”
― Warren G. Harris, The Other Marilyn: A Biography of Marilyn Miller

“Every infant born is testimony to the intricacy and breadth of possibilities inherent in humanity. Yet from birth* in most homes and social groups, we teach children that only certain possibilities within them are livable; we teach them to hear only certain voices inside themselves, to feel only what we believe they ought to feel, to recognize only certain others as human.”
― Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution

“Strategic girls manage perception; idealistic girls go up against the narrative, because it’s at the root of the problem, and they get crushed every time.”
― Carina Chocano, You Play the Girl: And Other Vexing Stories That Tell Women Who They Are

“It wasn’t just the movies. It was everything, everywhere. It was the sublimated sexism that mutated every experience but that we weren’t allowed to notice or acknowledge. It was the regressive subtext that seemed to undermine every progressive text.”
― Carina Chocano, You Play the Girl: And Other Vexing Stories That Tell Women Who They Are