catsittingstill (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
catsittingstill) wrote2010-11-26 08:26 am
catsittingstill) wrote2010-11-26 08:26 am
New TSA stuff.
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.
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.
no subject
I agree that I don't want to be groped by a female either. Just... if I decide to fly again, when I'm walking toward the guillotine, would I rather have my toes chopped off, or my feet? Toes. If I'm going to be seen naked, or groped, I want it to be by someone of my own gender, and I want to see whoever it is.
I do my best to avoid perfectly innocent things, which I shouldn't have to do, (I had a pair of shoes with some kind of steel shank in the sole, for example) to make the procedure quicker and smoother and it still doesn't work.
And it has been getting more and more onerous over time. And what for? *Everything* the 9-11 hijackers took on the plane was perfectly legal at the time. Patdowns and bomb sniffing machines for their shoes, and taking their water away, and all wouldn't have changed a damn thing.
no subject
I hope enough of us are complaining to Congress, that maybe they'll listen and pressure Homeland Security and TSA to do a re-think on how they treat people.