In this week’s Wednesday Five: Older women and the pitfalls of looking for love online; Barbie gets an artsy update from ‘Selma’ director Ava DuVernay and the doll sells out in minutes; a moving company of men help victims of domestic violence begin new lives; Nordstrom wants women to custom-design their perfect shoes; and Gloria Steinem pens the best ‘Top Ten Things I Want For Christmas’ list.

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1.

Older Women And The Pitfalls Of Looking For Love By Logging On

Last week, our Dr. Cecilia Ford wrote a sobering article on “Young Women, Dating Apps, and Sexual Hyperactivity.” This week on NPR, Laura Sydell reported on how dating technology is impacting older women:

“Being older than 65, single and looking for romance has never been easy, and for women, who outnumber single men, it’s especially challenging. The Internet is making it easier for older women, who didn’t grow up with the Web, to get outside their social circles for dating and romance, but it can make them more vulnerable to deception.”

2.

Barbie Gets an Artsy Update From Selma Director Ava DuVernay, Sells Out in Minutes

How incredible and affirming for our little filmmakers is this! Writing in Vogue, Marjon Carlos tells us how the award-winning director got her own doll from the Mattel company.

“Originally a one-off creation that was apart of the “Sheroes” collection commemorating inspiring women in the arts, the doll debuted last spring at the Variety Power of Women Luncheon. Said DuVernay: “Mattel was going to give me one copy and I was going to give it to my mom, and then [an image of the doll] hit Twitter. Twitter did its magic, and it went to another level!” Soon plans were underway to make the toy available on the Barbie Collection website for the Christmas season.”

And that the doll sold out in a record-breaking 17 minutes is proof of something larger, writes Kwame Opam for The Verge:

“The response is understandable, and speaks to how treasured a black female director is at the moment — a moment that sees women throughout Hollywood, like Shonda Rhimes and Lena Dunham, speaking out about the systemic issues affecting them and their work.”

3.

Men Who Serve

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For our Thanksgiving Series, we featured a menu of beautiful stories about the women who serve their communities during the holidays and year round. We were thrilled to see this story in the Los Angeles Times about the men who serve victims of domestic violence. Meathead Movers, staffed by student-athletes (hence the company’s name) “helps victims of domestic violence get away from their abusers by moving their belongings for free.”

According to Aaron Steed, the company’s founder:

“As I get older, I can’t help but really value and appreciate more and more the tone this sets for my employees who are involved in actually moving these victims,” Steed said. “I can’t help but think and hope that it changes their perception of themselves and their ability to have a major impact to do something that can really help someone in need.

“We’ve moved everywhere from the poorest of neighborhoods to the richest people. It doesn’t matter. This [abuse] is everywhere.”

4.

Nordstrom Wants Women to Custom-Design their Perfect Shoes

Wearable 3D Printed Shoes (Image from Wikimedia via Creative Commons License)

Our Fashion Friday fans will love this! We wrote about the 101 on 3D Printing here. Now, Nordstrom is bringing the option to your shoe shopping. Customers can now choose a base style and start designing.

“Earlier this year, the retailer started letting women design their own shoes, with trial customization studios in six stores. It appears to have been pleased with the experiment, because it’s decided to officially invest in the startup that developed the customization technology.” For the retailer, this is the new frontier of customer service.

Read more about how the 3D technology works here.

5.

Gloria Steinem: Top Ten Things I Want For Christmas

This year, more than ever, it seems like we need a new kind of Christmas  — one that shirks the consumerism and opts for a more substantive and thoughtful response to the holiday. Yesterday, our hearts were warmed as Gloria Steinem took to Facebook to share her “Top Ten Things I Want For Christmas.”  Some of it is sobering, some if it is funny, and some of it we’ll be copying!

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