TSA Security Theatre, Denial Is Just a River in Egypt Dept. 0
At Pscyhology Today, Alison Rose Levy considers at TSA patdowns.
It’s the first item I’ve stumbled over that tries seriously to address the issues of sex and sexuality that underlie some of the unease with the procedure. In most fulminations I’ve read, those have been implied, but not stated.
(snip)
Experiencing or even witnessing a patdown may be disturbing to healthy members of a community for good reason — because this behavior is defined as sexual abuse by the legal and psychological professions; the “Encyclopedia of Forensic and Legal Medicine” lists as sexual abuse “fondling of breasts and genital areas.”
This incident raises questions about why TSA personnel consider the patdowns “not too bad,” while others are shocked. Does the TSA harbor a culture of denial around the invasiveness of these behaviors?
