There’s nothing like the threat of a good crotch groping to galvanize our nation’s men into action against sexual assault. What began with the T-shirt-worthy battle cry “If you touch my junk, I will have you arrested” has since escalated into a full-on war.
Salon detailed the skirmish over whether sexual preference matters during a pat-down, while The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg railed against privacy violations (and the general inefficacy of the TSA as a whole). Hell, even humor writer Dave Barry threw his hat in the ring, lamenting his “blurry groin” in an NPR interview.
In short, guys are angry. And for the most part, rightly so. Being subjected to this kind of manhandling—pun unashamedly intended—is a flat-out violation no matter how you twist, fondle, or grope it.
But the question isn’t whether this is something worth talking about. The question is why it took this long for men to take notice.
Mother Jones writes:
It’s great to see these men taking a stand against what some have deemed TSA-sanctioned sexual assault, but I have to wonder why their indignation was so long in the making. It’s taken so long for people to catch on to how invasive the searches are. For years, women have complained about agents copping a feel: In 2004, when the TSA first experimented with gropey pat-downs, hundreds of women were complaining.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad freeNow that a bunch of guys are crying foul, the media is suddenly all over it. Tyner’s story went viral, but what about the stories of women—and children—who’ve stayed relatively quiet?
It’s true, sexual violations against women have been piling up for the better part of a decade. There was the Amarillo woman who sought legal action after her blouse was pulled down, exposing her breasts during a pat down. (The TSA agents were reported to have laughed the incident off, in spite of her visible tears.) Then there was the rape survivor in Minnesota who was subjected to a graphic “cupping and squeezing” by a male screener, leading to an emotional breakdown.
Dozens of stories are coming up now, but only after a white guy screamed pseudo-rape. Why didn’t either of these stories above go viral?
The answer to these questions is best illustrated by this Washington Times op-ed piece, charmingly titled “Obama’s Hand in Your Crotch”:
The Transportation Security Administration’s demeaning new “enhanced pat-down” procedures are a direct result of the Obama administration’s willful blindness to the threat from Islamic radicals. While better tools are available to keep air travelers safe, they would involve recognizing the threat for what it is, which is something the White House will never do.
The story goes on to bring up valid points about the TSA implementing “methods that would under other circumstances constitute sexual assault,” to (ineffectively) curb terrorist attacks.
But the brunt of the argument seems to be—as TBD writer Amanda Hess astutely points out—that “the TSA is willing to apply these ‘demeaning’ security measures to white people.”
Instead of focusing “on the more probable threats with minimal intrusion on those who are likely not terrorists, all passengers have to pay the price by having their privacy (and their privates) invaded,” the Washington Times writes.
That sounds to me like a roundabout way of saying this: We’re clearly privileged, so why are we being treated like we’re not?
Of course, it’s no news that white men live charmed lives. And I do appreciate that it’s finally dawning on men that this shit sucks. Mike Riggs admitted in an interview:
I have been doing some soul-searching re my anxiety about having my dick measured by a TSA x-ray machine. And I realized, women go through this every day. Maybe not the x-ray part, but men are always undressing ladies with their eyes. Now I have to go through a few times a year what women go through every day, and suddenly, I am feeling much more feminist and so, so, so angry.”
This is one of the worst articles written about a serious subject. While this author tries a so called prejudiced, feminist angle, the rest of us are enraged about what we consider scary, intrusive violations. As a writer (I can’t call this piece of news reporting) you should be ashamed at the disservice you have done to the public. I’m sorry that this writer couldn’t find a better angle to report this story, but in the meantime, this will be the first time that my family will not be together this Thanksgiving because I will not permit my children to… Read more »
TSA = Teabaggers Suck Ass
Well done! It is hard to face up to a loss of priveledge, and even harder to acknowledge that others have suffered worse than yourself. That said, I feel (no pun intended) that these search proceedures are ineffective. It is much more effective to use psychological methods for discerning potential threats. A good security officer can watch the body language of people in a department store and know who is likely to be planning theft. Those skills are well documented and can be taught. That method – which I encountered when flying to Isreal – is what we should be… Read more »
Oh, go away with your boring misandry.
It is kinda funny how butthurt men get about things and expect the whole world to stop to pay attention. And all of them who get upset about attention being called to this fact are sort of making the point, right? Of course, you would imagine that in the past, male TSA employees would use a lighter hand on their fellow man (or else being seen as *gasp* non-hetero), whereas women may not have always been treated with such discretion. Just saying. It is true that all people are upset about the new rules, however. I haven’t figured out which… Read more »
Nice job Lu!
I really like your “About Lu Fong”!
Not everything has to turn into a “men vs women,” “black vs white” crock of shit. Instead of saying, “Oh my god, men undress women with their eyes … that’s just like being forcibly molested by the TSA” (bullshit, and by the way, women undress men with their eyes, and it’s called human biology, ok?) let’s focus on the fact that everyone is reacting against this bullshit now. Not everything has to be a fight.
Why is it news that men are upset and not women? Because it’s rare for guys to get upset.
That’s not a judgment call. That’s not saying that women shouldn’t be upset or aren’t justified in regularly being upset or anything else. That’s just a reflection of what makes news and goes viral.
Women have been upset about mouth breather’s with metal detectors being inappropriate for so long, that it isn’t news any more. Guys being upset about it is a new phenomenon. Reporting on it gets ratings.
Why did it take a white straight guy getting groped and being upset about it to make an impact? Surely it is because the TSA just switched to more invasive gropes that affect everybody. If you listen to the tape outside his funny comment about touching his junk, you’ll understand that in addition to the TSA scanning your whole body in a blurry naked, radiation filled picture, they are now feeling your privates, instead of avoiding feeling them. It’s sexual assault, sanctioned by Big Sis – Janet Napolitano. Clearly the terrorists have won… Because until this came out, the same… Read more »