#5SmartReads - July 11, 2022
Hitha on hajj, Julianna Hough, and an important perspective on beauty and wellness
What makes "red flag" gun laws work (Axios)
“…research shows that when police officers, educators and community leaders are encouraged to use these laws and trained in their nuances, more court orders are filed that keep firearms away from potentially dangerous people.”
A gentle reminder that it’s not enough to have certain laws on the books, but that enforcement of them is key to their success.
And when properly enforced, lives are saved.
“From 2016 to 2019, at least 58 people who threatened mass shootings had their guns confiscated in California because of gun violence restraining orders, Pear found.”
This article is worth your time, not just because it explains an issue that gets unnecessarily politicized but because your participation (voting in local elections, calling elected representatives) helps enforce them.
Who Is Beauty For? (The Unpublishable)
I’ll give you one guess - it’s the same crowd that claim wellness as their own unique discoveries, ignoring the Eastern origins and history of these practices.
And I’ll ask you to add Fariha Róisin’s excellent book Who Is Wellness For? to your TBR list (and move it to the very top), but read this detailed and honest interview she gave to Jessica DeFino first. Sit with this statement for a second:
“It was pretty confronting to realize that through the severing of knowledge about the gut, via the emphasis on the “Western sciences” we’ve completely lost that integral connection between the mind and gut, which I mention in this book is another form of colonial design. The less you are spiritually connected to yourself, thus the land, and thus each other – the more pliable you are to marketing. It’s pretty insidious and remarkable how deep they thought on how to dehumanize people… by severing them from their own human instinct. It’s sociopathic.”
Why Trickle-Down Economics Works in Theory But Not in Fact (The Balance)
Things I think should be taught in schools - comprehensive sex education, personal finance, critical thinking, media literacy, and basic economics.
And, you know, honest history.
But let’s focus on basic economics. And specifically supply-side economics, which is better known as trickle-down economics and the basis of every Republican’s tax policy.
This article does a great job of explaining the policy, when it’s been enacted and the context, and if it worked. Highly recommend reading this one (and bookmarking it for future reference!)
Julianne Hough Wants To Find Her People (Bustle)
If you haven’t seen POTUS yet, PLEASE DO before the show closes in August.
I laughed, I cried, and I laughed some more. And I’ve been listening to Bitch Beats since I saw the show (you’ll understand when you see it).
Julianne Hough is one of the bright spots of the show - you learn that there’s more to Dusty than meets the eye, and the same can be said of Julianne, whose depth has always been there, but rarely shown in the press in her long career.
“I think it comes with age, too, but after the pandemic, [I’ve been thinking] about what’s important and what I can let go of, what can I clear this space for so that more can come in an abundant way?” she says. “Now I feel like I’m in a place where my time is valuable, my friendships are valuable, my family is valuable. I only want to do the things that I feel enhance my growth and evolution as a human. Anything that I do moving forward has to have intention and purpose behind it.”
This Eid al-Adha, the new rules for hajj have left many frustrated (NPR)
To my Muslim friends and those who observe, I wish you a joyful Eid al-Adha!
My friend Hina was able to travel to Mecca for hajj and has documented the entire experience, and I value how much I’ve learned from her both about Islam in general and the first post-pandemic hajj and the changes to the systems.
It’s unfortunate that this pilgrimage - which is so sacred for Muslims and a once-in-a-lifetime experience - continues to be inaccessible for so many, with new challenges emerging with this year’s changes than previous hajj.
The “Who is Beauty For?” piece was so interesting. The “mainstreaming” of things, anything really, strips the context away. Putting that context back is a fascinating education. @seeratsaini has had some great pieces on beauty traditions coming from South Asian communities - including some great stories on hair oiling, the traditions associated with it, and ways to get into the practice that come from a place of understanding and support South Asian businesses in the beauty space.
I love Jessica DeFino’s Unpublishable newsletter! It’s absolutely made me re-think my connection to makeup and skincare and how and why I use it, in addition to the cultural implications and repackaging of traditions. (Also, The Beauty Myth book.) She’s also written many google-able articles, Your Skin Doesn’t Need Skincare, Are You Using Hyaluronic Acid Wrong, among many others. You start to notice the isolation of ingredients in skincare can mirror the Western medicine tendency to separate body parts from each other for diagnosis and treatment.