TSA pat-downs

[AthenaC]

First of all, I really hope this does not devolve into another “modesty wars” thread. We need another one of those like we need another hole in our respective heads.

Anyway, I am flying a lot for work right now, and I am reluctant to go through the body-scanners at security. I am concerned about the radiation. (*)

So I go through the pat-down. As some other posters can corroborate, I am not burdened with a sense of shame, so it does not bother me in the least to have another person that I don’t know feel me up in public. (Although as often as I fly right now, I am getting to know the TSA people. )

My question for you all is - what goes through your mind when you see someone like me get pat down? Do you think “Oh look! Free girl-on-girl porn!” or just a mental, normal-course-of-business mental shrug? I occasionally catch the eye of male passengers who seem to just give me a quick, sympathetic smile before going about their business.

I considered whether or not I should get the pat-down in a private room, but then I realized if I did that, there would be no witnesses should anything untoward happen.

Any other ethical issues I should be considering regarding being an airline passenger navigating TSA?

(*) I am fully aware that: 1) we get bombarded with radiation all day, every day whether we like it or not; and 2) the scanners could be perfectly safe in the long run for as many doses as you care to give yourself. In response to #1, it just seems common-sense to me to minimize whatever additional radiation we can control. In response to #2, I could be wrong about the body scanners being dangerous, but the cost to me of being wrong is that I take extra time at security. Seems a sensible trade-off. shrug

P.S. I have also been known to warn my seat-mates: “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I need the other half of my seat belt.”

 

[Splagchnizomai]

My question for you all is - what goes through your mind when you see someone like me get pat down? Do you think “Oh look! Free girl-on-girl porn!”

I didn’t think that before, but now … I probably need to queue up for confession!

 

[AthenaC]

I didn’t think that before, but now … I probably need to queue up for confession!

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.

Maybe I’ve been spending too much time on the modesty threads - it’s been asserted over and over that guys are a bunch of horndogs ready to randomly hump the next woman they see if they so much as see a woman’s ankles. I guess when you hear the same type of thing over and over and over it starts to sink in whether you want it to or not.

 

[Mickey_Finn]

Honestly, I don’t think you have anything to worry about from radiation. Nor do I think that there is a modesty question concerning a pat down, exam. Remember why we are going through these steps. It’s for the safety of everyone, nothing more. So, I’m in the “we are all in this together-sympathy” camp.

As you plan to fly quite often. I’d choose which ever is the least hassle to you.

Fly safely!

 

[Debora123]

Maybe I’ve been spending too much time on the modesty threads - it’s been asserted over and over that guys are a bunch of horndogs ready to randomly hump the next woman they see if they so much as see a woman’s ankles. I guess when you hear the same type of thing over and over and over it starts to sink in whether you want it to or not.

Well that truly is a shame. I hope you can get rid of this hyper sexualized view of everything that some of these threads seem to bring…

 

[Debora123]

Honestly, I don’t think you have anything to worry about from radiation. Nor do I think that there is a modesty question concerning a pat down, exam. Remember why we are going through these steps. It’s for the safety of everyone, nothing more. So, I’m in the “we are all in this together-sympathy” camp.

You’d be surprised at the number of outraged threads here concerning TSA scanners and pat downs back when they first started in 2010. Common sense and logic thinking went out the window as it usually does, replaced with irrational, angry posts against the TSA and against air travel, making you think that sex was all that is ever in anyone’s minds at all times.

 

[JustaServant]

Oh yeah.
Forth Amendment rights being violated.
Funny stuff.

 

[GEddie]

We all have a body; and I doubt that seeing someone else’s get frisked in TSA is an occasion of temptation.

Unless someone were flying every day, I doubt the radiation is an issue either. Your body receives more just walking past the inventory control equipment in stores. You’d be in those much more than in airports.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Luna_Lovecraft]

Anyone whose mind immediately goes to “Girls Gone Wild Airport Style!” when witnessing or being subjected to a TSA frisk has a hyper-sexualized world view and should probably seek the help of mental health professionals.

When cancer clusters start being reported among pilots and flight attendants you can start worrying about the radiation thing.

Luna

 

[Rejoice_Always]

Maybe I’ve been spending too much time on the modesty threads - it’s been asserted over and over that guys are a bunch of horndogs ready to randomly hump the next woman they see if they so much as see a woman’s ankles.

Hmmm … ankles. I guess I’d better go to confession also!

 

[austenbosten]

First of all, I really hope this does not devolve into another “modesty wars” thread. We need another one of those like we need another hole in our respective heads.

Anyway, I am flying a lot for work right now, and I am reluctant to go through the body-scanners at security. I am concerned about the radiation. (*)

So I go through the pat-down. As some other posters can corroborate, I am not burdened with a sense of shame, so it does not bother me in the least to have another person that I don’t know feel me up in public. (Although as often as I fly right now, I am getting to know the TSA people. )

My question for you all is - what goes through your mind when you see someone like me get pat down? Do you think “Oh look! Free girl-on-girl porn!” or just a mental, normal-course-of-business mental shrug? I occasionally catch the eye of male passengers who seem to just give me a quick, sympathetic smile before going about their business.

I considered whether or not I should get the pat-down in a private room, but then I realized if I did that, there would be no witnesses should anything untoward happen.

Any other ethical issues I should be considering regarding being an airline passenger navigating TSA?

(*) I am fully aware that: 1) we get bombarded with radiation all day, every day whether we like it or not; and 2) the scanners could be perfectly safe in the long run for as many doses as you care to give yourself. In response to #1, it just seems common-sense to me to minimize whatever additional radiation we can control. In response to #2, I could be wrong about the body scanners being dangerous, but the cost to me of being wrong is that I take extra time at security. Seems a sensible trade-off. shrug

P.S. I have also been known to warn my seat-mates: “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I need the other half of my seat belt.”

As sin-filled as I am with the sin of Lust, I do not see “Woo hoo, Free action!”, I basically see someone being violated for the false sense of security and the true and present sense of tyranny.

I’m glad the TSA keeps the pat-downs very clinical, because otherwise it could be very lust-inducing.

However I still go with what Benjamin Franklin said “He who seeks security over liberty shall have neither.”

I’d rather America take proactive measures instead of reactive. What does it say about “the land of the free” if we are willing to sell our freedom to a government that currently abuses every freedom it gets.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Honestly, I don’t think you have anything to worry about from radiation. Nor do I think that there is a modesty question concerning a pat down, exam. Remember why we are going through these steps. **It’s for the safety of everyone, nothing more. **So, I’m in the “we are all in this together-sympathy” camp.

As you plan to fly quite often. I’d choose which ever is the least hassle to you.

Fly safely!

The TSA has never yet caught one terrorist by terrorizing citizens. In fact, you’d be shocked at some of the items that they HAVEN’T caught going through their scanners.

When President Bush created the TSA, after 9/11/2001, guess who got the jobs? The airport security guards, who were neither trained nor capable of doing these now very important jobs. They got perfunctory training. They were unionized. Do you feel protected when they harass grandmothers wearing adult diapers? Or they molest CHILDREN because ??? You know, in all my travels since 9/11 I have never yet seen one Muslim or Arab male between the ages of 17-55 pulled off the line to get questioned or felt up. Never ONCE!

Yet there we all are, dutifully removing our shoes and going through the scanners, or getting rudely molested, all in the name of safety. What has happened to our nation, that we accept this treatment?

 

[AthenaC]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the (name removed by moderator)ut of normal people.

Well that truly is a shame. I hope you can get rid of this hyper sexualized view of everything that some of these threads seem to bring…

Anyone whose mind immediately goes to “Girls Gone Wild Airport Style!” when witnessing or being subjected to a TSA frisk has a hyper-sexualized world view and should probably seek the help of mental health professionals.

Upon further thought, I don’t know if it was the modesty threads. Perhaps I spoke unfairly. I did, however, grow up in a household where if I did not agressively cover a LOT of territory in something shapeless, I was assumed to be complicit in the hypothetical temptation of every hypothetical man that hypothetically saw me in that state. I never agreed with this, but maybe some of that thinking has sunk in because although I don’t see everything through the lens of sex, I legitimately don’t know what to expect from other people. So normally I just don’t give it any thought and go about my business wearing what’s comfortable.

Oh yeah.
Forth Amendment rights being violated.
Funny stuff.

Is this in reference to the next to the thread title? I picked the because whenever I fly, I always make sure to give the TSA a great big . Just makes the whole process that much more pleasant.

 

[JustaServant]

Is this in reference to the next to the thread title? I picked the because whenever I fly, I always make sure to give the TSA a great big . Just makes the whole process that much more pleasant.

Pleasant? Okay, to each his own I guess.
I fail to see any humor or frivolity in this abomnination that has inflicted on the American people.
I feel sorry for people who have to fly frequently because I would never allow myself to have my Constitutional rights violated in the name of “security”. I would never smile at them if I did. Any more than I would the Gestapo in WW2 Germany. And yes, I do believe there is a paralel between the two.
I would rather get a new job or travel by boat or train before I allowed that kind of violation. And it won’t be long before the TSA is there as well.
The fact that many Americans do not see this as a red light is frightening to me.
Freedom, in most cases, is never taken away rapidly, it’s GIVEN away slowly until the memory of that freedom is dim and lost.

 

[AthenaC]

Pleasant? Okay, to each his own I guess.
I fail to see any humor or frivolity in this abomnination that has inflicted on the American people.
I feel sorry for people who have to fly frequently because I would never allow myself to have my Constitutional rights violated in the name of “security”. I would never smile at them if I did. Any more than I would the Gestapo in WW2 Germany. And yes, I do believe there is a paralel between the two.
I would rather get a new job or travel by boat or train before I allowed that kind of violation. And it won’t be long before the TSA is there as well.
The fact that many Americans do not see this as a red light is frightening to me.
Freedom, in most cases, is never taken away rapidly, it’s GIVEN away slowly until the memory of that freedom is dim and lost.

Why not? The people on the front lines doing the pat-downs are just doing their jobs. Nothing more. So far most of them have been pleasant to talk to. The regulatory environment that exists is not their fault.

To your larger point, I see that as a battle for another day. For today (and I do literally mean today), I can’t do anything to change it, so why not smile? Nothing will be gained by my resistance at security, so I am fortunate that I am not burdened with a sense of shame. I need to fly for my job, so why make it any more unpleasant than it already is?

 

[austenbosten]

Why not? The people on the front lines doing the pat-downs are just doing their jobs. Nothing more. So far most of them have been pleasant to talk to. The regulatory environment that exists is not their fault.

To your larger point, I see that as a battle for another day. For today (and I do literally mean today), I can’t do anything to change it, so why not smile? Nothing will be gained by my resistance at security, so I am fortunate that I am not burdened with a sense of shame. I need to fly for my job, so why make it any more unpleasant than it already is?

I agree the Gestapo agents on the front-lines were just doing their jobs. Most of them have been pleasant to talk to…just don’t say anything bad about the Fuhrer.

Same could be said for

The NKVD
The KGB
and The SS death camp guards.

Just nice folks doing their jobs, I bet they were the sweetest people you ever met.

 

[agnes_therese]

My question for you all is - what goes through your mind when you see someone like me get pat down?

Frankly, I don’t pay any attention to other passengers’ “adventures” with the TSA. I’m busy enough keeping my eyes on the trays holding my stuff .

 

[JustaServant]

I agree the Gestapo agents on the front-lines were just doing their jobs. Most of them have been pleasant to talk to…just don’t say anything bad about the Fuhrer.

Same could be said for

The NKVD
The KGB
and The SS death camp guards.

Just nice folks doing their jobs, I bet they were the sweetest people you ever met.

The traditional Gestapo (TSA) dance.
youtube.com/watch?v=duX4tIFocvY

 

[GEddie]

Hoo boy! Godwin’s law already!!!

 

[austenbosten]

Hoo boy! Godwin’s law already!!!

Haha yes because if it walks like a duck, quakes like a duck, looks like a duck, and acts like a duck…

IT IS DEFINITELY NOT A DUCK!

2+2=5
2+2=5
2+2=5

Doubleplusgood!