Category: Women’s Rights

Yup, that’s right. The OB Rag’s own columnist, the Widder Curry, has made the news. Judi Curry – who lives in southern OB – was interviewed by Channel 10 News after she called them to recount her story of being victimized by a “Catfish” scheme. She went to the local TV station in order to warn other women about the risks of “online dating”.

Here’s part of the story by Jennifer Jensen, with links to the full article.

Local woman duped by love in ‘catfish’ scam – She warns women to be leery on free dating sites

At 74 years old, she thought she had found love again, but instead a local woman may have been part of an elaborate scam. Judi Curry contacted 10News after being “catfished” or duped into believing she was chatting online with someone pretending to be someone else. She says her story should send a message for women who are looking for love on free online dating sites.

By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner

Let’s ease into this subject with a mindful autumn walk. Notice the days getting shorter…. morning air chillier… leaves turning gold on liquid amber trees.

Now notice a fact as unwavering as the seasons — the fact that sex plays a dominant role in San Diego public affairs. Hook it up with other San Diego mainstays (uninspired leadership, stunted civic aspirations, free-floating corruption, overinflated egos, corporate welfare, legal-establishment collusion, Republican Party strategy, dubious fidelity among leading Democrats, to name a few) and it wallops a punch potent enough to knock a new mayor out of the ring and force the city into a costly, rushed election to bring in a replacement.

Of course this is not how the Chamber of Commerce markets our city.

By Eva Posner

I hate pink.

It’s really an awful color in my opinion. I do not begrudge those who like it. We are all different, so rock it if you want to.

But I will not. I cannot. It is not in my wardrobe or my color wheel.

I have the exact opposite problem as David Harris-Gershan, author of My Life with a Pink Water Bottle. Harris-Gershan found himself ridiculed for using his wife’s pink water bottle, and instead of cowering to attempts at humiliation and intimidation by other men, he decided to use it to make a statement about gender roles and sexism. He now carries it around on a regular basis, using people’s reaction to it as a teachable moment. I think his reaction is fantastic and I applaud him for challenging stereotypes.

As a woman, however, I am bombarded with pink constantly, and I am so over it.

How one of the most common, yet misunderstood, male sexual dysfunctions can rip relationships apart.

By Jody Gummow / Alternet

“Where such men love they have no desire, and where they desire they cannot love,” Sigmund Freud wrote back in 1925. The founding father of psychoanalysis coined the Madonna-whore complex – a condition whereby men view women as either saintly, virgin Madonnas or sexual “whores.”

In essence, the effect of Madonna-whore on a relationship is an inability of the man to maintain sexual arousal within a committed, loving partnership. In his psyche he categorizes women into two groups: women he can admire and women he finds sexually attractive; the former he loves, the latter he devalues.

Dr. Patrick Suraci, Ph.D., and author of “Male Sexual Armor: Erotic Fantasies and Sexual Realities of the Cop on the Beat and the Man in the Street” explained the origins …

By David Rosen / Alternet

The 8th annual Feminist Porn Awards, held in Toronto, April 4 to 6, were organized by Good for Her, a Toronto-based, women-orientated, sex paraphernalia store. Some 110 programs were submitted for such categories as Golden Beaver (Canadian content) and Smutty Schoolteacher (sex-ed).

By David Rosen / Alternet

Three centuries before Las Vegas was founded, New York was known as sin city. It was home to drinking, gambling, and most especially, illicit sexual pleasures. One of New Amsterdam’s first sex workers was Grietje “Little Pearl” Reynies, a lively bawd or “doxie.” Taunted by seamen on a departing sloop with the cry, “Whore! Whore! Two pound butter’s whore!” she allegedly lifted her petticoat and pointed to her naked backside, replying, “Blaes my daer achterin.”

…the real winners here are the same old downtown insiders who are busy popping champagne corks and laughing at Filner’s implosion and cheering the welcome help they are getting from unlikely sources.

By Jim Miller

Whatever the end result of the Filner sexual harassment scandal, it’s clear that even if the mayor beats the odds and survives, his credibility and ability to move a bold populist agenda is severely damaged.

Hence, San Diego’s first truly progressive mayor may have squandered the opportunity to be a transformative figure, the progressive fighter and game changer we had hoped he would be. Worst of all by engaging in abusive behavior towards women, Filner has betrayed the core principles of any progressive politics by failing to respect the civil rights and humanity of women. We don’t need to hear all of the details to know that this is true–he has admitted as much himself.

By Nadira Hira / The Good Men Project

Nadira Hira’s manifesto on marriage.

I won’t change my name. I’ve spent the last three decades making the one I have mean something. And I’d like to keep it up, thanks. Which is, I hope, a major part of why he’ll love me always.

I won’t accept a ring. I will gush over my friends’ rings, of course. I will keep my views on the fraught history and general scourginess of diamonds and engagement rings to myself, mostly. But till he too is sporting a symbol of ownership on his strong and manly hand, I won’t be wearing a bloody thing on my finger.

I won’t stop celebrating men — him, and all the others. This will be a service to our children, and given my taste — Brad, Idris, Sandma — a testament to his quality.

From The Daily Transcript, June 4, 1913, issue – one hundred years ago today: A very large number of delegates…

OB Rec Center Meeting Led by Jeanne Brown

By Judi Curry

I attended a most informative meeting at the OB Rec Center on May 16 on the subject of “Health Care Reform”. The focal point was on a “Single Payer Health Care” and a Healthcare Movie was shown to the audience.

The film revealed the true story of how the health care systems in Canada and the US evolved so differently when, at one, point, they were essential the same. Statistics are overwhelming –not just in comparing the Canadian health care system to ours, but in just looking at the stats overall.

Editor: From the agenda and minutes of the OB Crime Watch meeting held Monday, May 13th, we offer the following as a report of the meeting. As background, the OB Crime Watch formed in early October 2012 after a series of sexual assaults against women in Ocean Beach and reports of a peeping tom.

With about 20 people in attendance at the OB Woman’s Club, Mercy Baron opened the meeting with introductions. It was announced that a name change of the group was in the offering, that people thought “OB Citizens Watch” was a better title for the group.

The group that organized in Ocean Beach after a series of sexual assaults against local women is having their monthly meeting tonight at the OB Woman’s Club.

The meeting of the OB Crime Watch Citizens Patrol will be at 7pm at 2160 Bacon Street. They’re asking the community to join them and discuss and share ideas to help keep OB safe.

The meeting is open to all. Organizers are asking attendees to bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the Loaves and Fishes program.