I always wondered how people with 20+ piercings in their junk deal with airports. I would think that might start to be enough metal for the scanners to care.
But nipple piercings? Bloody hell. Not to mention any fresh piercing runs the risk of closing over if the jewelry is taken out .. or infection. Sure, most flights aren't likely long enough for it to be an issue, but I cringe anyway.
When I flew last August with my new nipple piercings there was not a hair twitched about them. Happily. Didn't even think about it at the time.
I've had to remove captive bead nipple rings with pliers before, that by itself isn't that big of a deal. The fact she had to remove them at all, and that they were laughing at her is bullshit.
I think it was Scott Adams that made the plea a while ago that some terrorist try to hide a bomb in a large brassiere, so that all women going through 'security' would have to take theirs off to be checked.
"TSA is well aware of terrorists' interest in hiding dangerous items in sensitive areas of the body, therefore we have a duty to the American public to resolve any alarm we discover," the agency said in a written statement.
Clearly bmezine is the new front in the war on terror.
"As Ms Hamlin struggled to remove the [second] piercing behind the curtain, she could hear a growing number of predominantly male TSA officers snickering in the background," the attorney said in the letter.
Oh. Em. Gee. The cool kids are laughing at me because I've spent ten minutes failing to get my second piercing out and have had to be offered a set of pliers! Oh, the humanity!
Because being a half-naked woman who's been obliged to do something that normally only your personal physician would have *any* reasonable right to request of you, while only a piece of fabric is shielding you from a bunch of men who have some authority over you and have demonstrated that they have absolutely no inclination to treat you as if you were a person deserving of any respect or dignity--hey, that's *totally* not the sort of situation a reasonable person should object to.
Unless they actually have some weird expectation of being treated like a person.
Been X-rayed by border guards. Been interviewed through bullet proof glass where the assumption was that I was a visa risk. Been put in holding areas. Citizen of a third world country, let me show you it.
Of course it's humiliating. That's what airline security is, whether it's people snooping through your underwear or x-raying your bags. Myself, I've been compelled (by the Brits) to submit chest X-rays* before they'd let me into their green and pleasant land - talk about medical imperatives being misapplied. So - humiliating? Sure. Intrusive? Sure. That's the panopticon at work.
What I won't concede is that having to remove a nipple ring behind a curtain is SO MUCH WORSE OMG that we need to publically validate this woman's torturedness and do a round of headshaking.
* - to show I wasn't some kind of TB-raddled African or something
And people say I over-react to the whole TSA thing? That they don't want to risk terrorists on the planes? That the TSA is NEEDED? I don't THINK SO- this is BullSH*T of the first degree... no- wait.. -BUSH-SH*T of the first degree.
Unfortunately, I must admit I can't site this information from a more credible source, but the guys on the radio this morning said she also had a navel peircing that she was NOT required to remove.
And to those of you bitching about the TSA; I agree with you. So, what do we do instead? Just desolve it and fly like we did pre-9/11, or put something else in place?
Yes, dissolve the TSA. Now. It's a needlessly intrusive instrument, costing more in time, money, and human dignity than it is generating actual safety and security. It's become obsessed with nailclippers and shampoo and shoes instead of its proper function.
Chuck it and spit in the eye of the terrorists, or keep it and do exactly what they intended when they perpetrated 9/11.
-- Steve'd also like it if you ditched MiniTru* the Department of Homeland Security, for the same reasons.
*C'mon, you just know they were reading 1984 when they hatched that name out.
The creepy thing was working with NAFTA Certificates of Origin for goods coming from the States on official "Homeland Security: Dept. of Border Control" forms.
(Also I would like it if they ditched DHS because I took a certain trivia/trivial pleasure in the Secret Service belonging to the Department of the Treasury. But that is a truly minor thing.)
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 03:01 pm (UTC)But nipple piercings? Bloody hell.
Not to mention any fresh piercing runs the risk of closing over if the jewelry is taken out .. or infection. Sure, most flights aren't likely long enough for it to be an issue, but I cringe anyway.
When I flew last August with my new nipple piercings there was not a hair twitched about them. Happily. Didn't even think about it at the time.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 03:06 pm (UTC)Boobs of Mass Destruction!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-30 01:11 am (UTC)I think it was Scott Adams that made the plea a while ago that some terrorist try to hide a bomb in a large brassiere, so that all women going through 'security' would have to take theirs off to be checked.
He was being amusing, but now...
Then there's also Wondermark's take on it:
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 03:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 03:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 04:59 pm (UTC)Clearly bmezine is the new front in the war on terror.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 05:25 pm (UTC)pew pew pew
Date: 2008-03-30 01:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 03:27 pm (UTC)I am just >< this far from marching up Olympus and demanding Poseidon flood the world.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 06:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 03:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-30 01:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 04:56 pm (UTC)"As Ms Hamlin struggled to remove the [second] piercing behind the curtain, she could hear a growing number of predominantly male TSA officers snickering in the background," the attorney said in the letter.
Oh. Em. Gee. The cool kids are laughing at me because I've spent ten minutes failing to get my second piercing out and have had to be offered a set of pliers! Oh, the humanity!
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 05:18 pm (UTC)Because being a half-naked woman who's been obliged to do something that normally only your personal physician would have *any* reasonable right to request of you, while only a piece of fabric is shielding you from a bunch of men who have some authority over you and have demonstrated that they have absolutely no inclination to treat you as if you were a person deserving of any respect or dignity--hey, that's *totally* not the sort of situation a reasonable person should object to.
Unless they actually have some weird expectation of being treated like a person.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 06:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 06:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 06:53 pm (UTC)Except to rate it rather low, of course.
Empathy, let me show you it.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-29 03:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 05:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 05:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-29 03:10 am (UTC)What I won't concede is that having to remove a nipple ring behind a curtain is SO MUCH WORSE OMG that we need to publically validate this woman's torturedness and do a round of headshaking.
* - to show I wasn't some kind of TB-raddled African or something
(no subject)
Date: 2008-03-28 06:04 pm (UTC)I don't THINK SO- this is BullSH*T of the first degree... no- wait.. -BUSH-SH*T of the first degree.
There's more...
Date: 2008-03-28 08:45 pm (UTC)And to those of you bitching about the TSA; I agree with you. So, what do we do instead? Just desolve it and fly like we did pre-9/11, or put something else in place?
Re: There's more...
Date: 2008-03-28 10:19 pm (UTC)Re: There's more...
Date: 2008-03-28 11:03 pm (UTC)Chuck it and spit in the eye of the terrorists, or keep it and do exactly what they intended when they perpetrated 9/11.
-- Steve'd also like it if you ditched
MiniTru* the Department of Homeland Security, for the same reasons.*C'mon, you just know they were reading 1984 when they hatched that name out.
Re: There's more...
Date: 2008-03-28 11:27 pm (UTC)Re: There's more...
Date: 2008-03-29 12:24 am (UTC)(Also I would like it if they ditched DHS because I took a certain trivia/trivial pleasure in the Secret Service belonging to the Department of the Treasury. But that is a truly minor thing.)