New TSA stuff.

[catsittingstill]

So here's what I think.

Zeroth, what was the old rigamarole (no liquids, take off your shoes, metal detectors, etc) for if it didn't keep us safe?  And if it did keep us safe, why do we need the new rigamarole? 

First, I want to at least see the face of the person who is seeing me naked. Seeing without being seen is a big power issue. Be glad I don't demand to see her naked too, because being clothed while other people are required to be naked is also a big power issue.

Second, note "her" in the sentence above. One of the reasons I want to see her face is I want to know she's a woman. I am culturally more comfortable at sharing "naked space," like a locker room, with people of my own gender. (Though, see above, "more comfortable" is not the same as "comfortable"--if I was sharing a locker room with a security guard in full uniform I might decide to skip the whole thing and go home in my gym clothes and change there. I don't get that option in the airport.)

I'm not prejudiced. I don't care if the woman seeing me naked is gay. I don't care if she's trans. But I want someone who says right out in public "I am a woman." I want someone who knows what it is to go though life among people who think your body is public property and your time belongs to whoever cares to claim it.

Because anything else is just, you will pardon the term, naked oppression.

Hat tip to Autographed Cat for the post that prompted the response I have expanded here.

Comments

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Yes, this makes sense. If I can't see the person running the scanner, then at least I'll see the person doing the groping. And she will be a woman, like me.

someone who has experienced the way this society treats women and their bodies

Which apparently men, with the best will in the world, just cannot perceive.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Which apparently men, with the best will in the world, just cannot perceive.

At least it seems that goodwill isn't sufficient to make it possible for them to perceive it. I won't make blanket statements about what men can or cannot perceive for the same reasons that I don't like to hear men make blanket statements about what women can or cannot perceive; there are always exceptions to any broad categorical statement (including, doubtless, the one I just made about broad categorical statements, if you want to play paradox games). But there's a difference between blanket statements and statistical predictions, and when I'm deciding what to do, between choices that are mine to make, such as scanners with random viewers I don't see or pat-downs by female agents I do see, I will bet the short odds.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Well, and I'm being too general. I was exasperated, and exaggerating.

I expect there are men who can perceive it, and can realize it's important.