A young woman got frightened by the prospect of a strange person tracking her down with the information from her lost ID, and from this, we are to conclude that identity politics are to blame. That's quite a reach.

Light on reading comprehension, are we? It's not so hard to track down people listed in a public phone directory; moreoever, he emailed her, he didn't come knocking on her door. It's either identity politics, or she needs a shrink or a better shrink. Also, he didn't track her down to say hello, he tracked her down because he'd found her ID card. All she had to do to check out why he was *really* emailing was look in the empty slot in her wallet where her card was. Any woman who finds this fear-inspiring should join a walled convent with German Shepherds guarding the moat. And you should ask yourself why you're so quick to blind yourself to the effects of the ridiculous clowns Andrea Dworkin and Catherine Mackinnon and all their intellectual lackeys.

Sorry -- the APPARENT effects.

I'm heavier on the reading comprehension than you are on common sense, apparently. An undergraduate in Norman, Oklahoma is afraid of a stranger with her ID e-mailing her to meet him someplace, and this is attributable to Catherine MacKinnon?? I mean, MacKinnon has much to answer for - absurd legal theory and bad writing - but young women in small-town America being afraid of strange men is not one of them. Maybe blame her parents for raising a nincompoop, instead. She doesn't need a shrink, she just needs to grow up. As does anyone who thinks this is about identity politics.

By the way, what terrible thing happened to the nice guy who tried to return her ID? He was questioned by the police, horrors! And "the police exercised both common sense and common decency, with one detective eventually thanking him for 'making the extra effort to protect the members of our community' by returning lost property." Fascists.

Mithras, I'm afraid the one lacking in common sense (and reading comprehension) is you. First of all, "Stalking... is defined as 'the willful, malicious and repeated following and harassing of another person.'"

The man in question made ONE attempt to actually meet with her, and it was a place that was accessible to the students of the University during the normal hours of operation, not some dark alley at midnight. He also gave her a PHONE NUMBER and an email address to contact him. I can't see a stalker willing to make it so easy for authorities.

Moreover, should this woman STILL have had reservations, it should have been more than an acceptable alternative for him to simply turn the ID in and let her pick it up at her leisure, which he did do.

She had absolutely no reason to go to the police. Her ID was properly turned in and she could have retrieved it without ever making contact with the man who found it.

As for your sub-moronic comment, "By the way, what terrible thing happened to the nice guy who tried to return her ID? He was questioned by the police, horrors! And "the police exercised both common sense and common decency, with one detective eventually thanking him for 'making the extra effort to protect the members of our community' by returning lost property." Fascists." Did you happen to miss the part where it took the bureaucracy a WEEK for him to be exonerated? He does not need to be scrutinized and investigated for trying to reunite someone with their lost property, just because she doesn't have to common sense to realize that someone whose going to turn in her ID to the authorities probably isn't a maniac trying to hunt her down.

The beneficiary of his kindness, ingrate that she is, probably would like to feel that there's some strange man that is obsessively stalking her to validate her existence. Ooh, the drama... I have a stalker. Or she's so paranoid, she should be institutionalized. Or she's simply a moron.

What Patrick said. (Thank you Patrick, for your contribution to the effort to save my wrists from carpal tunnel syndrome.)

Catherine MacKinnon is not rat-haired and mustached. She's very fuckable, actually.

Patrick - I already said the young woman in question was a nitwit. That's not what we're arguing about. We were discussing Amy's (and Wendy McElroy's) unfounded assertion that identity politics caused the woman to act like a nitwit. I think she's a nitwit all on her own.

As far as I can tell from the article, it took a week for the cops to clear the nice guy because they couldn't locate the record of him turning in the ID. It's too bad, but it's not the gulag.

Mithras... "As far as I can tell from the article, it took a week for the cops to clear the nice guy because they couldn't locate the record of him turning in the ID. It's too bad, but it's not the gulag."

I don't dispute that's possible, but that is merely an assumption on your part. It doesn't say how long it took to locate the ID, nor does it say that it was the reason the investigation took so long.

Speaking for myself, I'd be willing to give up about 10 minutes of my time to explain a misconstrued philanthropic effort on my part. If I needed to be investigated for an entire week for it, I would not be satisfied with just an apology and a sincere "thank you." A week of my time is worth far more than that.

The article doesn't give us the details of his "week-long ordeal," but if it kept me from my work or personal business, you can bet that the authorities in the area would be paying for it. The student herself should be charged, if there is an appropriate charge on the books.

As for identity politics to blame, we at least agree that the woman is a nitwit, and I do place the responsibility on her for being one. However, I believe the attitudes reflected in her nitwitticism -- which cost a blameless man a week of his time explaining himself for the benefit of a shrill alarmist -- are traceable to identity politics. Is it such a stretch to see that since all seduction is rape perpetrated by the male (per Dworkin), that any attempt by a male to contact a previously unknown woman is "stalking?" Would it be as easily considered stalking if the genders of the participants in this drama were reversed? What next? Does a woman on a crowded street in broad daylight now take out the rape whistle if a man happens to ask her for the time of day?

Patrick - I went back and re-read the article. The guy wasn't arrested. He was questioned by the cops, who took a week to verify his story because OU didn't tell them he had turned in the ID. It's not even clear he was brought in to a police station. Okay, not the most pleasant way to spend a week, but as you pointed out up-thread, even if the cops construed the thing in the worst possible light, one incident is not harassment.

Anyway, still nothing to prove it was identity-politics-driven paranoia. Which was the whole point of Amy's post and Wendy McElroy's article. Anything to bash "feminazis" and look "contrarian," I guess.