Comments on: Backscatter X-ray scanners, security theatre, and marginalised bodies

By: TSA full-body scans

TSA full-body scans — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 19:08:32 +0000

[...] not the people who need the most comforting. Trangendered people have something to worry about. Disabled people have something to worry about. Fat people have something to worry about–if only in the [...]

By: libbyblue

libbyblue — Sat, 08 May 2010 03:01:55 +0000

In Miami, an employee who demoed one of these scanners for his coworkers reportedly “endured months of ridicule” for the size of his penis “before he allegedly snapped,” made his tormentor apologize on his knees, and beat him with a police baton. Such professionalism from his peers! Such respect for diverse bodies! Are we supposed to believe that 1) security employees aren’t going to comment on passengers’ bodies 2) even when they are particularly novel to said employee, or 3) that it doesn’t matter because passengers won’t be present for “months” of abuse?

Link to article “Penis mockery allegedly led to airport beating” here:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2010/05/07/13861516.html

By: romham

romham — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:34:21 +0000

Ilene Flannery Wells
“I don’t know what a “cis” is…but anyway”

Ilene, “cis” refers to non-transssexual or non-transgender folks. I.e. ‘cisgendered’, from ‘cis-’, “on the same side”, + ‘gender’; in contrast to ‘trans-’, “crossing over”; both from Latin, and both prefixes used in Chemistry with similar meanings.

from http://dglenn.dreamwidth.org/1588929.html

By: Ilene Flannery Wells

Ilene Flannery Wells — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:36:01 +0000

I don’t know what a “cis” is…but anyway, I am a sexual assault survivor and there is no way in hell I fought off they guy – who had a gun – only to be forced to either flash my naked body at a stranger or be subjected to a pat-down.

I have asked the TSA whether or not the Frequent Traveler program will allow me to bypass security. I doubt it but I have not heard back from them.

I have to travel out of Chicago soon, which has installed these machines and I have decided that I will wear my one-piece bathing suit through security the next time I fly. I will respectfully ask that they allow me to be viewed without touching me or without my going through the scanner. TSA will be able to detect anything that they would otherwise find through a pat-down or my going through the scanner. I doubt it will work, but it will be worth a try…I’ll drive home if they don’t comply with my request.

By the way, I understand that many people do not have the options I have for obvious reasons…this is just my way of dealing with the situation and I thought I’d share… I want to take control back over who I will let see or touch my body and this seems to be the only thing I can think of. I am a swimmer so it seems natural to me…

By: Airport Security Theatre Linkspam « afterthree.net :: rachelle saunders

Airport Security Theatre Linkspam « afterthree.net :: rachelle saunders — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:30:34 +0000

[...] X-rays apparently being implemented all over. The ones that break child pornography laws. And how will non-binary gendered people be affected by this? They say only “same sex” people will view the scans in a separate room not visible to [...]

By: Body Scanners and Personal Privacy « Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton

Body Scanners and Personal Privacy « Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:43:32 +0000

[...] Backscatter X-ray scanners, security theatre, and marginalised bodies [...]

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:32:07 +0000

And now the Electronic Privacy Information Center is reporting that the machines *can* actually save and send images. So they won’t even have to use cell phones.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/01/11/body.scanners/

By: Nightengale

Nightengale — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:15:34 +0000

Never mind individual screeners not recognizing insulin pumps – the TSA website states that I (a pump user) should “tell the screener I cannot remove my pump because it is surgically attached.”

Except that it isn’t surgically attached. Trust me, I did not have surgery in my living room half an hour ago when I refilled and reinserted it. That doesn’t mean I should remove it for screening, of course.

But it does raise the issue, if the TSA website, presumably the central repository of information and presumably having been compiled after some input from the health care system can be so specifically misinformed, what does this mean for individual TSA screeners at dozens of scattered airports with even less access to medical information, when they encounter a pump, or other less common devices.

By: Interesting posts, weekend of 1/10/10 « Feminists with Female Sexual Dysfunction

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:54:21 +0000

[...] Backscatter X-ray scanners, security theatre, and marginalised bodies – Following a semi-failed terrorist attack around the December holidays (It should never have made it that far in the first place,) some security experts in countries such as the UK (and the US) are pushing for full body scanners at airports. These scanners are revealing when used on anyone, but certain groups of people are more at risk of embarrassment, and possibly danger. That new danger doesn’t necessarily come from a terrorist, rather, it comes from being exposed, or “Outed.” And there’s questions about how secure the images that show up on body scanners really are. [...]

By: HillaryGayle

HillaryGayle — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:58:57 +0000

I sincerely apologize for any impression I gave to that effect. It was my intention to emphasize how screeners “wallowing in privilege” (nice phrase!) could be a large part of the problem here, as a background for my hope that some training for those screeners (in recognition of medical appliances, in privacy issues, and most importantly in their own privilege) could help.