Airport Scanners and Feminine Hygiene

[Circe]

Date: 5/14/2010 4:57:39 PM
Author: LittleGreyKitten

Date: 5/14/2010 2:56:54 PM

Author: sunnyd

Date: 5/14/2010 12:47:29 PM

Author: HopeDream

I''m pretty sure the security folk will get the hang of it pretty quick - no one wants to anger a menstrating woman! (She''ll take out your eyes!) I think you can request to pe examined by a female security person if you wish.


I do wonder about folks with extensive peircings ''down there'' though.


I''m sure at this point security has seen it all.

My sister has a nipple piercing, and they pulled her in for the pat down, though she was more than willing to just flash the dude as proof. Ah, my sister. Such a classy lady. LOL.

Well, I don''t have *that* particular body mod, but I do have a lot of piercings. They do set off the scanner *every freaking time*. Then they pull you aside, wand you, discover your bra underwire beeps and feel you up. Awesome. I never get to fly without a nice friendly boob-grope prior to boarding. I think the worst was when I was wearing a short plaid schoolgirl type skirt, and the wand dude stuck the end of the wand under the edge of my skirt and hoisted it up in front of the whole line. (I was very glad I always make sure to wear the full-butt panties rather than thongs with the short skirts!)


So yeah- anybody with extra metal gets The Wand. I always request privacy for the wand & grope process, after the skirt-lifting incident.


My whole family hates flying with me; they know I always get molested as part of the process and that I slow everyone down for it.


Anyway, those body scanners creep me out.

I hope they don''t install them everywhere.

LGK ... woah. That''s a light-hearted and very funny account, but the skirt-lifting incident sounds a little ... inappropriate. You sound un-miffed (which is very good for you, obviously, and which I am glad to hear), but did you feel offended at the time? Do you feel okay about it in the abstract?

I ask (apologies if this is TMI) in memory of an incident I had with a male gynecologist when I was 19. He spent the entire time telling me what a "hot little body" I had. It didn''t bug me in particular, but the notion of his doing it to one of my more innocent peers made me see red (and report him to the local board). That''s the sort of thing that makes me think that "unwanted friendly thoughts" can present a risk (at least from people who assume that "happy with yourself" translates to "open to random advances" - sometimes confusing "female" with the former), and that operating while female in this culture can be effed up, even if one is, individually, perfectly happy with and open about body issues.

 

[April20]

Jas, I''m assuming you''ve already flown today. I''ve flown out of Ohare about three times in the last month and it''s been regular screening. I''m flying out of there again on Monday. Can you let me know if you see the fancy machines? I haven''t seen them yet.

On a side note, they let me bring my knitting needles on, which freaked every single person out today. I made it better by telling them someone could do the same damage with a ball point pen.