The pat down issue is sophomoric

[dandi]

This DUmmy has posted the same thing I've been thinking for a while now (which has caused me to seriously consider getting a psychiatric evaluation  ), even though I don't agree with it in principle. I even thought of posting a vanity thread about it.

First let me say that I think the majority of this TSA "security" screening is bullshit. People might recall that, from the beginning, I've advocated an Israeli-style profiling method of looking for terrorists rather than searching WASPish great-grannies from Peoria for bombs.

That being said:

Onlooker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Sun Nov-21-10 11:52 AM
Original message
The pat down issue is sophomoric
   
Edited on Sun Nov-21-10 11:52 AM by Onlooker
I can't believe people are so caught up in this issue. While there's a civil liberties argument to be made, scanning our bodies or touching near our privates is hardly as invasive as going through our luggage. So, I have to conclude, that this issue involves mostly American Puritanism. It seems to me that too many people think nudity is sex. Sure, there might be a TSA worker who gets off on touching someone or on looking at an electronic image, but most adults do not react that way. If I see someone naked at the gym, I don't giggle. If I visit someone at the hospital and see someone only partly dressed, I don't get aroused. If I see my neighbor run by her window in her bra or a colleague who forgot to pull his zipper up, it doesn't do a thing for me. It's time for people to grow up and accept that they might someday some way be seen naked. It should not be a big deal, unless you haven't yet reached puberty. If the TSA experts think searches make things safer, then I'm fine with it. Those searches do not impede my freedom in any way.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9602411

What he says should be true from a liberal POV. Haven't we for the last 40 years been told that all this type of modesty about our bodies stems from patriarchal, Puritan, religio-fundie attitudes about about our bodies and sex? People just wanting to further control us? Haven't we been told that there is nothing about our bodies to be ashamed of? That we should just "let it all hang out?" That taboos regarding genitalia are from the Bronze Age and it's no different than any other body part? Haven't nude protesters been applauded for "shaking up the sensibilities" of the more conservative and modest end of the societal spectrum?

Now all of a sudden our wee-wees are Golden And Untouchable? They should stay packed away out of sight and mind and it's an especially egregious assault for others to come near them. In mocking DUmmy terms, "They're SPAY-SHUL?"

Do you think this kind of personal intrusion would have even been considered in the pre- Sexual Revolution era of, say, the 1950s when modesty was more than the punchline to a Liberal joke? Reap what you've sown, DUmmies, and swallow that bitter pill.

Some DUmmies are at least consistent:

HipChick Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Sun Nov-21-10 12:39 PM
Response to Reply #32
72. Exactly...people are too caught up in their outrage

sufrommich Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Donate to DU!    Sun Nov-21-10 12:42 PM
Response to Reply #32
76. It's pure hysteria at this point. nt

otohara Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Sun Nov-21-10 12:15 PM
Response to Reply #4
40. A Quick Pat Around Your Crotch
   
isn't going to damage you for life, is it?

There's a difference between being groped and a TSA pat-down.
I've experienced both, big difference, huge difference!
One is unwanted sexual advances by men who think no means yes, the other is a professional doing their job.

While others still flaunt their newly-found sense of propriety or couch it in terms of "privacy rights," even though they continue to use terms like "molestation," "groping," and "sexual assault":

seabeyond Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Sun Nov-21-10 12:18 PM
Response to Reply #40
45. feel about uncertainly or blindly. sounds like a grope. is that our boundary, damage for life?
   
is that now how we decide whether we allow invasion, is to decide if we will be damaged for life? really?

you still have not explained to me, to make the decision who sees me naked and who gropes me, makes me a puritan

avaistheone1 (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Sun Nov-21-10 12:19 PM
Response to Reply #40
49. Yes it is.
   
It is degrading to me, my dignity, and my person. It is humiliating, unnecessary and ineffective.

It is immoral, unethical and illegal.

madinmaryland Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Donate to DU!    Sun Nov-21-10 12:36 PM
Response to Reply #34
66. So you don't mind a rent-a-cop groping your junk??

Why not? It's just a normal part of the body. Nothing to be ashamed of. Stop beng so uptight and Freeper-like! 

Remember this DUmbasses, when you make fun of our military folk's concerns about sharing living quarters with homosexuals.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I am kind of tired of all the hand-wringing and anguish myself.  I figure next time I'll just respond with 'Go ahead, but please extend me the courtesy of not speaking during it so I can close my eyes and pretend you are a good-looking heterosexual woman."  Unless of course the screener is a good-looking woman, fat chance on that though thanks to the frickin' EEOC.

[blitzkrieg_17]

To their credit many did take him to task over it. But it still says a lot about DU.

[true_blood]

Funny how some of the DUmmies aren't on board with....(gasp) lord zero's policies. Or shall I say his, I mean her, Janet Nappy's policies. (She's in WAY over her head with this job, it seems.) It seems to me that the DUmmies are getting mixed feelings about different topics. Maybe they're waking up? Let's hope.

[jukin]

Yep.  Having the government check into what you get out of library is so much more than the new TSA policies.

[longview]

I sense an opportunity here. 

Drive through hijab shops near the entrance of airports.  Don't question the religion or gender of the wearer - that would be profiling.

[BlueStateSaint]

(She's in WAY over her head with this job, it seems.)

That's a recurring theme with the Oministration.

[JohnnyReb]

That's a recurring theme with the Oministration.

"The Peter Principle"....to the extreme.

[blitzkrieg_17]

H5 to dandi for mocking the DUmbasses. They voted for this shit, they have to live with it.

[Karin]

I am only going to say that I get the serious creepy heebie jeebies when I think of little kids and adolescents being accosted like this.  I'm not flying this TG, and I rarely fly because it's such a pain in the ass (I'd rather drive for days).  But if I were, and I had a teenage daughter, I believe I'd be cancelling.  This is seriously gross. 

[Chris_]

I sense an opportunity here. 

Drive through hijab shops near the entrance of airports.  Don't question the religion or gender of the wearer - that would be profiling.

If you're like me, and would rather be left alone by people you don't know, a burka might be a great thing to have...

[true_blood]

That's a recurring theme with the Oministration.

Yes it is. They're all either red diaper doper babies or commies/socialists with one goal in mind.