Here’s a fantastic piece in the current issue of Harper’s on Mary Kay and their exploitation of desperate housewives. It’s by Virginia Sole-Smith, a talented young journalist who’s carved out an interesting niche for herself: her beat combines beauty, labor, and exploitation. (She also happens to be the daughter of my adviser in grad school, Rogers Smith.) Alas, the geniuses at Harper’s have it behind the firewall.  But it’s astonishingly cheap to subscribe to the magazine, so do that or buy the issue.