There was a time when I used to be a model. I was frequently asked to pose in little or no clothing. If you know where to look, it's not actually all that hard to find nude photos of me
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Right to travel? I have legalistic problems with that phrase, but never mind them because I agree with the spirit and only rarely enjoy playing devil's advocate. In any case, I look at this from the perspective of a right to privacy.
Because of a number of trans and gender-queer friends and several freaky/pervy/fetishy people I keep up with, how invasions of private space, not to mention strict binary definitions of gender, transpire always makes me wonder how they're going to make through. How is someone who presents as a woman going to explain that the bulk in her underwear is not a bomb to a bunch of strangers with a line of more strangers who are possibly going to be spending the next two to 14 hours with her? how is a man who likes to wear a suit when he travels because it looks smart at the same time that it perfectly hides the rope harness going to take the questioning?
I used to know a woman who, as a child, was exploited when a neighbor took hundreds of nude and near nude pictures of her in his bathroom. how will she make it through this when PTSD is a threat to her daily well being?
These personal details along with the graphic data on ANY person's privates aren't the business of the TSA. If you think it's invasive to have a stranger see your business Down There think about how if, along with the view, there came an investigation of your private sexual past.
There's a sort of wary social concensus that even if we can't comprehend, let alone be comfortable with each other's specific approach to gender presentation or sexual practice (in fact, socially, most of us are not really even comfortable seeing our friends' junk), we can get along fine if we don't have know about it. The ultragendernormative, heterosexual vanilla male may feel considerable anxiety when a stranger gets to know what his mama gave him because he's socially conditioned to keep that to his wife and doctor. The trans-man, pansexual fetishist will feel mortified because everything that he has taken pains to hide is now known to people he didn't personally select. He is outed as not born XY and there is nothing he can do about it.
Ever since we accepted that airport security may go through our luggage - and that was long before 9/11 - we've lived with the reality that we don't get to keep many secrets when traveling by air. If you call it a secret instead of a "private matter" the general concensus demands you give up your secret so everyone can feel safer. If you do call it a matter of privacy, however, there are rights and laws that can be invoked because security is only supposed to look for illegal things. There is no law against attempting to pass as a different gender from the one on your ID or carrying material for the purpose of private entertainment.
In the end, as it always is, those who *can* skip the little anti-normative things that make life fun will. And those who can't will see their long days grow even longer.
************ Airport Security Officer:...when a suitcase vibrates, then the throwers gotta call the police. Narrator: My suitcase was vibrating? Airport Security Officer: Nine times out of ten it's an electric razor, but every once in a while... [whispering] Airport Security Officer: it's a dildo. Of course it's company policy never to, imply ownership in the event of a dildo... always use the indefinite article a dildo, never your dildo. --Fight Club
Urk. went on for a ways that is more ranty than what I had in mind. Very sorry. I try to keep ranting to my own blogs. Just... I have been thinking about how this affects friends who might have the unexpected private detail and it's frustrating to think the only thing the so-called grown up world can advise is suck it up.
The other group that's not getting as much attention as they should are the people with medical conditions. The gentleman whose urine collection bag was popped by a clumsy TSA pat-down is the most obvious example, as is the woman who had to take out her false breast and show it to everyone. But imagine someone who has a deformity, surgery, amputation, etc. that heretofore is comfortably hidden by clothing now needing to have images of that (or a pat-down to confirm what it is) broadcast to everyone. My dad has a pacemaker, and therefore cannot pass through a metal detector without tripping it. I imagine others with medical conditions are in a similar situation, virtually guaranteeing them the indignity every time they travel.
I worry very much that this truly is just security theatre and the invasion of privacy and loss of personal secrets are completely in vain. Israeli behavioral scanning seems to work out quite well at the same time as being efficient and low impact to travelers. We always have to worry about bias of course - the ethical implications of prejudice as well as the possibility that it will create a blindspot for terrorists - but there are levels of backup security for the dangerous situations and of course the training Israeli security gets that is not part of a TSA agent's repertoire.
It's so aggravating to know that here people are being forced in to unusual behavior to get by when what security experts seem to say to look for is people behaving in a manner that seems uncomfortable and unusual *to them.* That is, the nervous, sweaty, furtive person deserves a second glance. But... I get nervous enough myself around security personnel, I can only imagine the anxiety of people who just want to get to their destination safely and without revealing their private idiosyncracies.
Right to travel? I have legalistic problems with that phrase
You are correct. Legalistically we have the right to freedom of movement. The travel itself is accomplished via a private contract. I should be more precise, but that would undermine the spirit of the post. :)
Because of a number of trans and gender-queer friends and several freaky/pervy/fetishy people I keep up with, how invasions of private space, not to mention strict binary definitions of gender, transpire always makes me wonder how they're going to make through. How is someone who presents as a woman going to explain that the bulk in her underwear is not a bomb to a bunch of strangers with a line of more strangers who are possibly going to be spending the next two to 14 hours with her? how is a man who likes to wear a suit when he travels because it looks smart at the same time that it perfectly hides the rope harness going to take the questioning?
I used to know a woman who, as a child, was exploited when a neighbor took hundreds of nude and near nude pictures of her in his bathroom. how will she make it through this when PTSD is a threat to her daily well being?
These personal details along with the graphic data on ANY person's privates aren't the business of the TSA. If you think it's invasive to have a stranger see your business Down There think about how if, along with the view, there came an investigation of your private sexual past.
There's a sort of wary social concensus that even if we can't comprehend, let alone be comfortable with each other's specific approach to gender presentation or sexual practice (in fact, socially, most of us are not really even comfortable seeing our friends' junk), we can get along fine if we don't have know about it. The ultragendernormative, heterosexual vanilla male may feel considerable anxiety when a stranger gets to know what his mama gave him because he's socially conditioned to keep that to his wife and doctor. The trans-man, pansexual fetishist will feel mortified because everything that he has taken pains to hide is now known to people he didn't personally select. He is outed as not born XY and there is nothing he can do about it.
Ever since we accepted that airport security may go through our luggage - and that was long before 9/11 - we've lived with the reality that we don't get to keep many secrets when traveling by air. If you call it a secret instead of a "private matter" the general concensus demands you give up your secret so everyone can feel safer. If you do call it a matter of privacy, however, there are rights and laws that can be invoked because security is only supposed to look for illegal things. There is no law against attempting to pass as a different gender from the one on your ID or carrying material for the purpose of private entertainment.
In the end, as it always is, those who *can* skip the little anti-normative things that make life fun will. And those who can't will see their long days grow even longer.
************
Airport Security Officer:...when a suitcase vibrates, then the throwers gotta call the police.
Narrator: My suitcase was vibrating?
Airport Security Officer: Nine times out of ten it's an electric razor, but every once in a while...
[whispering]
Airport Security Officer: it's a dildo. Of course it's company policy never to, imply ownership in the event of a dildo... always use the indefinite article a dildo, never your dildo.
--Fight Club
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The other group that's not getting as much attention as they should are the people with medical conditions. The gentleman whose urine collection bag was popped by a clumsy TSA pat-down is the most obvious example, as is the woman who had to take out her false breast and show it to everyone. But imagine someone who has a deformity, surgery, amputation, etc. that heretofore is comfortably hidden by clothing now needing to have images of that (or a pat-down to confirm what it is) broadcast to everyone. My dad has a pacemaker, and therefore cannot pass through a metal detector without tripping it. I imagine others with medical conditions are in a similar situation, virtually guaranteeing them the indignity every time they travel.
Reply
It's so aggravating to know that here people are being forced in to unusual behavior to get by when what security experts seem to say to look for is people behaving in a manner that seems uncomfortable and unusual *to them.* That is, the nervous, sweaty, furtive person deserves a second glance. But... I get nervous enough myself around security personnel, I can only imagine the anxiety of people who just want to get to their destination safely and without revealing their private idiosyncracies.
Reply
You are correct. Legalistically we have the right to freedom of movement. The travel itself is accomplished via a private contract. I should be more precise, but that would undermine the spirit of the post. :)
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