TSA Agent Does Not Enjoy Searching Fat People
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. —Ben Franklin
I’m sure you’ve all read plenty about the TSA furor, which has been upsetting plenty of people. Friend of the blog Aych has written about her experience, and posts written by and about rape survivors have added additional layers of horror to the whole thing—and have suggested that the purpose of the pat downs is not actually to search people, but to embarrass them into choosing the scanners instead.
So I was reading this article about how the TSA agents don’t like the patdowns any more than airline passengers do, and what’s one of their complaints? Of course. Fat people.
“It is not comfortable to come to work knowing full well that my hands will be feeling another man’s private parts, their butt, their inner thigh,” wrote one male agent. Even worse is having to try and feel inside the flab rolls of obese passengers, and we seem to get a lot of obese passengers!
Well gee, I’m really sorry my “flab rolls” are making you uncomfortable while you are groping my private parts in public. Obviously I should fall in line and just go for the option where my naked body gets projected on a screen for you instead.
Posted by mo pie
Email us
Last week my mother had to have a pat-down because she had touched the wall in the scanner accidentally, causing it not to work correctly. I imagine this is much more likely for those of us with bigger bodies that will be closer to the walls.
This new scanner/screening procedure is such a mess. The only positive thing coming from it is that finally people are talking about the whole issue a bit more.
I often had to have the old style “back of the hand” pat-downs because I would forget and wear one of my large underwire bras and set off the metal detectors. The screeners would say it wasn’t due to the bra, but it consistently happened when I wore one of the high-quality ones that had enough wire to provide my extra ample bosom with support. I’m not sure that was much better than the new style except that they only felt the spots where the wand beeped. Of course in my case that still meant they got to second base!
I’m still struggling to wrap my head around how invasive, insane and unnecessary this is. The search methods haven’t prevented jack. So what’s going on that the TSA wants to bow everyone into submission?
Remember pat downs also are done whenever something shows on the scanner that shouldn’t. I’m wondering how well the scanner deals with rolls of flesh…
I cut a few paragraphs out of my entry (it was getting very long), one of them about the potential difficulties of getting through security with large breasts. I was wearing a very lift-and-separate bra that day, and her check of it and my chest/ribcage was the most thorough of any part of my body. If you are wearing a bra that creates cleavage (or always have cleavage due to your dimensions), I have no idea how they manage the between-boob check other than sticking their hand down in there. Something to consider when dressing for the TSA.
This makes me want to fly again and opt-out, just to make a TSA agent’s day miserable from having to touch my big fat ass.
I had the same response – I will fight back by making them touch my gross deathfat
Agreed! I said exactly the same thing as I was reading the article! I applied for a grant to send me to Florida for a conference in March. If this whole barbaric practice hasn’t been discontinued by then, I’m so gonna opt out for exactly the same reason you state. Bring it on!
They might not enjoy the actual pat down or body search when conducted on fat people, but they absolutely LOVE humiliating fat people. The comments, the facial expressions, the unbridled disgust, and making sure that it’s done with as many people as they can enable to watch and enjoy the show.
Trust me–I’ve witnessed it, and I’ve experienced it. If it weren’t for the fact that I have self respect and pride about myself, I’d not shower for about 3 days before going to the airport, really give em something to be disgusted about.
Good, frankly. Anything that makes these procedures as uncomfortable for them as it does for the rest of it is A-OK in my book. I think we should all reject the scanner in favor of a patdown if we know the TSA guy is going to hate it.
They seem to get a lot of obese passengers? Well of course they do. As an obese woman, I think I am probably more likely on average to be uncomfortable with some stranger seeing me naked (as the scanners do), and would think the pat downs might be a less embarrassing option. Obviously, I’m wrong. ARGH, I hate this whole thing. I feel bad for passengers, I feel bad for the agents, I think the whole thing is a horrible shitty situation.
I’m almost looking forward to the pat down the next time I fly. I plan to reenact that famous scene from “When Harry Met Sally” as TSA sexually assaults me with hopes of making it as miserable and embarrassing for them as it is for me.
lmao–wish i could B there 2 C it—ha ha
Ah…it’s the pot calling the kettle beige, as it were. Have you SEEN some of those TSA employees? Where do they get off calling anyone else “obese”? And by the way, who does the pat downs on those same TSA workers when THEY are about to board a flight? Are TSA staffers permitted to make the same derogatory remarks about their fellow workers as they do about the traveling general public? I haven’t flown since the pat-down procedures were put in place, but I can tell you I am NOT looking forward to it.
I, for one, am shocked that anyone cares about the body scanners at all. Who really cares? I think it’s much more invasive for them to screen my luggage than my body. Seriously, who hasn’t seen a naked person before? Are they the same people who insist on changing clothes in the restrooms instead of the locker room? (Note to those people: Some of us actually need to pee! Get over yourselves!) I honestly don’t get it. That anyone would prefer a pat down to a scan is completely beyond me.
I have a history of cancers, including skin, on both sides of my family, and the radiation dose from the backscatter x-ray machines is concentrated entirely on your skin (although the company that makes them calculated the dose as though it was affecting the entire body mass of an adult, which is orders of magnitude larger), and even that dose is assuming that the agents at that particular airport haven’t cranked the machine up to get a clearer picture. They couldn’t pay me enough to go through that scan. I might go through the millimeter-wave machines if I have that option, but Michael Chertoff is now a lobbyist for the company that makes the x-ray ones and basically every airport that doesn’t already have the scanners will wind up with x-rays by the time they’re done.
People care because we are not criminals. You haven’t done anything to warrant a strip search and you should care about your rights being violated.
People who have prosthetics care about strangers seeing them naked.
Parents of small children who don’t want them fondled or photographed naked care.
If the TSA had some outstanding track record of success I might be more inclined to think they know what hey are doing, but the TSA has never caught a single terrorist.
I am shocked that there are people who don’t care.
My bitchy, unrelated rant aside, if they are claiming that there is nothing sexually awkward about these scans and searches then what difference would it make if a person is fat or not? This shouldn’t be FUN for the people in the position of power anyway.
I would be more upset about having to grope grandmas and ten year olds in their junk.
Maybe maybe maybe the guy meant that he doesn’t like patting down overweight passengers because he doesn’t like embarrassing them by feeling between their rolls. Maybe.
Your comment is grossly insensitive to survivors of sexual assault, and anyone else who doesn’t feel exactly the same way you do.
Two airlines serve our island airport: Podunk Regional and Interstate Jetsaround. I recently helped a relative buy a round-trip ticket online. She is poor and would not be flying at all (to see relatives she hasn’t seen in years) if not for a windfall. She needs to make the money stretch. Nevertheless, she chose to pay almost $100 extra to fly Interstate Jetsaround from here to the nearest hub instead of taking Podunk Regional from here and switching to Interstate Jetsaround at the hub. That’s because Podunk Regional doesn’t do security theater. If she flies Interstate Jetsaround all the way to where she’s going, then she gets to do the TSA Humiliation Conga here at our very small local airport, where she knows the security theater personnel (and probably their parents) by name and they will not give her crap for being old, fat, and female. She will have to endure TSA procedures at a much bigger airport when she flies home, but at least she will have an easier time on one leg of the trip.
A couple of the comments in this thread seem a bit worrying to me. First @ Carol Gwenn, “Have you SEEN some of those TSA employees? Where do they get off calling anyone else “obese”?” Maybe I’m misreading, but you seem to use a tone that is critical of TSA members for being obese? (And certainly, we know that members of oppressed groups can be the most biased against those same groups… some women can be pretty misogynistic… some fat people can be very fat-shaming.)
@sophie: yes, actually, some of us are very uncomfortable changing in public, and would far prefer to have our bags scanned than our bodies scanned. Even aside from the cancer risk inherent in the scans, some of us have all sorts of fully acceptable reasons to be uncomfortable with public nudity, from simple modesty and shyness to traumatic experiences of many stripes.
Sorry it wasn’t clearer, as in how dare these idiots call other people fat when they are fat as well? Doesn’t it bother the TSA guys (off duty or on) when they hear someone make a fatphobic comment about THEIR bodies? Are they just trying to be “one of the guys” by being fat-hating but ONLY when it comes to passengers? (Boy – there’s one that’ll come back to bite ’em in the ass one day!)
…and the only fat I hate is the excess that I have to trim off meat before cooking. I’m quite fond of my fat & hope that others feel the same about theirs.
This is ridiculous! I have never had a problem with any airline or their employees until recently this past summer. I flew home to texas from california in july on Southwest… everytime I fly out to see my brother who is in the marines & stationed in california I have always purchased my tickets to fly with southwest & never had any problems to due with my weight. Yes, I am a big girl…. I know this I don’t need others to remind me! So when I flew home in july on southwest airlines I was very suprised when I was stopped by one of the employees who told me that I was going to have to wait to board the plane because he thought I was to big to be a passenger on such a full flight. I had no prblem waiting to speak to someone about what was going one but, there was little talk said… as soon as one of their managers or whatever they are called came to “talk” to me she from the get go told me I was to big & had to buy another seat. I tried to explain to her that understood what she was saying but, because I was flying with my sister in law who had no problem sitting next to me that I didn’t see a reason for me to have to buy an extra seat since the reason for the extra seat is so that “whover got stuck next to me” (the southwest employees exact words) didn’t feel uncomfortable. So she argued with me & said it didn’t matter if my sister in law was sitting next to me & didn’t have a problem with me & my fatness that I would still have to buy an extra seat. After I argued and refused to do so she the took me on to the plane that was already filled with passangers & made me do a seat test which I wouldn’t have mind doing if it was somewhere in private between the employees of southwest & myself not the entire flight! I was embarrassed & brought to tears because she called me fat in front of everyone…. long story short I was able to fly home but it took a lot of arguing with a lot of rude employees of southwest who all need to go to customer service classes on how to be more courteous! So, I have told myself & everyone I know that I will no longer fly with southwest or anyother airline until I fell comfortable to do so again. This may not have anything to do with the TSA thing but, my point is that it seems to me that all airlines are making it point to make it humiliating, embarrassing, & a hassle for “fat people” to fly comfortably & that’s sad!
This is ridiculous! I have never had a problem with any airline or their employees until recently this past summer. I flew home to texas from california in july on Southwest… everytime I fly out to see my brother who is in the marines & stationed in california I have always purchased my tickets to fly with southwest & never had any problems to due with my weight. Yes, I am a big girl…. I know this I don’t need others to remind me! So when I flew home in july on southwest airlines I was very suprised when I was stopped by one of the employees who told me that I was going to have to wait to board the plane because he thought I was to big to be a passenger on such a full flight. I had no prblem waiting to speak to someone about what was going one but, there was little talk said… as soon as one of their managers or whatever they are called came to “talk” to me she from the get go told me I was to big & had to buy another seat. I tried to explain to her that understood what she was saying but, because I was flying with my sister in law who had no problem sitting next to me that I didn’t see a reason for me to have to buy an extra seat since the reason for the extra seat is so that “whover got stuck next to me” (the southwest employees exact words) didn’t feel uncomfortable. So she argued with me & said it didn’t matter if my sister in law was sitting next to me & didn’t have a problem with me & my fatness that I would still have to buy an extra seat. After I argued and refused to do so she the took me on to the plane that was already filled with passangers & made me do a seat test which I wouldn’t have mind doing if it was somewhere in private between the employees of southwest & myself not the entire flight! I was embarrassed & brought to tears because she called me fat in front of everyone…. long story short I was able to fly home but it took a lot of arguing with a lot of rude employees of southwest who all need to go to customer service classes on how to be more courteous! So, I have told myself & everyone I know that I will no longer fly with southwest or anyother airline until I fell comfortable to do so again. This may not have anything to do with the TSA thing but, my point is that it seems to me that all airlines are making it point to make it humiliating, embarrassing, & a hassle for “fat people” to fly comfortably & that’s sad! I don’t think us “fat people” would have such a big problem with all of this if the TSA & airlines were to make specific guidlines for “over weight” passengers & go about the pat down process a bit more discreetly instead of making it in a comedy show for the rest of the people flying with that airline & the world! Everyone has their opinion about this and this is mine…. agree or disagree I just hope things get better before its a bigger problem than it needs to be.
I had to be patted down the second time I flew. I was crying because I was leaving my significant other and wouldn’t be seeing him for who knows how long before we eventually moved in together. In my emotional state I forgot my cell phone was in my pocket when I went to go through and instead of letting me go through again without the phone I got the complimetary grope. It wasn’t embarrassing to me, the woman was really respectful and did it quickly and professionally. I am sorry that other people had such bad times with it, they really need to better screen their employees, no matter what a person looks like it is incredibly unprofessional and inhumane to treat them with anything other than the respect that they would expect for themselves.
I don’t mind if they don’t like my fat!! But it would make me feel uncomfortable, because I sweat more than average… So if they don’t like fat how would they feel about that???
I haven’t had to deal with this particular bit of travel stupidity yet but when/if I do I think three things will carry me through.
1) I’m fat. Just SITTING on a plane is going to envolve being VERY uncomfortable AND being touched by strangers.
2) Don’t even THINK about complaining about how my fat touching is the worst thing in the world after getting worked over by a TSA Agent at the gate. Without even the curtesy of pleasent conversation or the consideration of a kiss afterwards (Well, you weren’t gonna get a kiss from me either but pleasant convo might happen).
3) Humiliating pictures taken against my will being viewed and commented on by complete strangers? I face that possibility every day on the street. Their called Headless Fatty photos. Welcome to my world.
This is one of the many reasons I perfer to drive.
Pingback: Weekly linkage
I, for one, do travel sometimes and am not looking forward to the patdowns. It’s an invasion of privacy!
I think the new regulations are creating a lot of questions. I appreciated what your raise here about obese passengers and how they are reacting to these new guidelines.
I know that pat downs aren’t fun but isn’t flying somewhere a priveledge? If you want to fly, you are either going to be scanned or have a patdown because people have brought weapons onto planes. If you don’t want it to happen, don’t fly. I don’t see what the big deal is, people were getting pat downs long before the scanners ever came out (my husband somehow is always randomly selected for a full patdown and search).
Unfortunately, flying is a job requirement for many people. Melissa McEwan at Shakesville has written whole posts on this, which are better than what I’m writing here. But, basically, these pat-downs can be particularly triggering for fat people, survivors of rape and abuse, and transgender people. What this does is to make employment and job advancement more difficult (in some fields) for these people than for others who do not find such pat-downs troubling. Worth reading: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/11/no-thanks-i-guess-ill-just-never-go.html
and many others. She’s written a lot on this.
flying is not a privilege or a luxury when your business requires it
I don’t know how they like to see the outline of my fat body on the scanners?
You mean to tell me that someone is required by law to grope me all over? IN PUBLIC?! HOT DOG, WHERE DO I SIGN UP?
So do they enjoy searching skinny people?
Yeah, I can’t believe feeling my rolls is making them uncomfortable… the whole situation is uncomfortable for everyone involved obviously. I’ve noticed that that quote was reeking of homophobia and fatophobia. Okay I made up that term, but I would be pissed off getting a pat down, let alone feeling like I was too ‘gross’ to pat down.
So, I had the patdown, at an airport that doesn’t have the fancy screening machine (and for the record, I do think both are invasions of privacy).
I hated it, but the TSA person who did the patdown was so completely professional, even kind. She clearly knew that this is something that can be upsetting, and was doing everything she could to keep me from being upset.
I hope that this gets taken through the courts… I just don’t think that we should have to submit to this in order to fly… but I did want to report that as much as I did find it upsetting to be forced to have the patdown, the TSA agent was incredibly professional.
One more thing. I had to have the extra screening because my underwire set the detectors off. It hasn’t done that in years, but did both times I flew last week. Ugh. Less supportive, non-underwire sports bras when I travel, I guess, from now on.