More TSA Madness

Last Friday, I was in the car listening to Charlie Sykes' show and he was talking about some of the crazy stories associated with the TSA and wondering where the madness will end. Because my mind tends to go off in all directions, when I got home I sent him this email.

Charlie,

I wonder what will happen to those who have incontinence issues or women who are flying at "that time of the month"...will they have to prove that they are using hygiene products to prove they're not carrying anything threatening??

Chris from Racine

Since I was busy doing things around the house, I have no idea if there was any follow up on the question and promptly put it out of my mind.

Well, I guess now I have my answer...

New York Times reporter Joe Sharkey wrote Monday that he was getting a lot of requests for information from female frequent fliers.

“Do the imagers, for example, detect sanitary napkins?” women wanted to know. “Yes,” wrote Sharkey.

“Does that then necessitate a pat-down? The TSA couldn’t say. Screeners, the TSA has said, are expected to exercise some discretion.” the article continued.

“And what about tampons?” asked the blog Feminist Peace Network. “They look kind of like sticks of dynamite. Are they going to ask us to pull them out and show them just to be sure?”

The answer, judging from one woman’s written testimony, seems to be yes.

A customer of popular women’s health company, Gladrags, relayed her recent experience at the hands of the TSA via email.

In short, she was asked to walk through a radiation firing naked body scanner and complied. The scanner produced a naked image of her, but because her sanitary towel was obscuring her most intimate parts from prying eyes, the TSA agents pulled her aside for a full groin search. Not something to be relished by any person, let alone someone who has previously suffered sexual assault.

Here is the woman’s email in full:

“This email isn’t going to be as polished as I would normally send, but I’m upset and I don’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else (if I can stop it).

I recently traveled via air, and was subjected to that new scanning device. “No problem,” I thought. I was wearing jeans and a linen tanktop, bra, panties, and one camouflage pantyliner.

I’m a rule follower, so I never have any problems at the airport. Not this time. I was stopped, and then held for 15 minutes while they tried to find a female supervisor. I couldn’t get to my bag, my shawl or my shoes; just standing there while the TSA agents kept me in one place.

Now, I don’t want this to be about bad TSA agents; they were doing their job, they were as delicate as they could be, etc., etc. But what ultimately happened is that I was subjected to search so invasive that I was left crying and dealing with memories that I thought had been dealt with years ago of prior sexual assaults.

Why?

Because of my flannel panty-liner. These new scans are so horrible that if you are wearing something unusual (like a piece of cloth on your panties) then you will be subjected to a search where a woman repeatedly has to check your “groin” while another woman watches on (two in my case – they were training in a new girl – awesome).

So please, please, tell the ladies not to wear their liners at the airport (I didn’t even have an insert in). I’m a strong, confident woman; I’m an Army vet (which is why those camo liners crack me up), I work full-time and go to graduate school full-time, I have a wonderful husband, and I don’t take any nonsense from anyone. I don’t dramatize, and I don’t exaggerate. I’m trying to give you a sense of who I am so you won’t think that this is a plea for attention, or a jumping on the bandwagon about the recent TSA proposed boycott.

I just don’t want another woman to have to go through the “patting down” because she didn’t know that her glad-rag would be a matter of national security.”

Ladies - I guess we better plan our travels accordingly. *shaking head in disgust*