Airport scanners and trans people
There was a recent discussion over at Slashdot about airport scanners. Specifically, the scanners that can show something close to a naked image when used correctly. During the discussion, someone said:
I’m so sick and tired of people saying “if you have nothing to hide why whine?” or “you must have a small penis if you’re so concerned with body scanners”.
It’s just none of their damn business and we’ve given the terrorists EXACTLY what they wanted, mass paranoia and giving up our freedoms for “the war on terrorism”.
To which I replied…
Without being sarcastic, some of us are concerned about having their small penis put up for display. This will inevitably be TMI, but I know I’m not the only trans woman who reads Slashdot, and presenting and being perceived as a woman but smuggling a dick through security runs the risk of harassment (if you’re lucky) and arrest/sexual assault/murder (if you’re not).
I’m all for safe air travel, but I can see a million ways to abuse this technology, and use it to harass and humiliate people who aren’t terrorists for every one way it can be used to “fight terrorism.”
(More broadly, although I didn’t get into this in the above-quoted comment, having ID that matches your presentation doesn’t automatically grant safety from authority figures. I’m still nervous about getting pulled over, going through airport security, and generally dealing with any government or security official because it would be so easy for them to exert their power over me in a way that would make me unsafe. And if they discover what I’m “smuggling,” history shows that there’s a good chance they’ll use the opportunity to do so.)
Shockingly for an online discussion, not only was my comment modded up (meaning people thought my comment was worth reading) someone else chimed in, in agreement, and they were also modded up!
When being singled out and abused for being transsexual is institutionalized, you tend to get a bit nervous when technology is installed that would expose you as a transsexual to individuals with great power. Nearly every transsexual person has had bad experiences with police, clerks behind a counter, and those expecting your identification papers to fit within a narrow set of parameters. http://www.wmctv.com/global/story.asp?s=8515744 [wmctv.com]
Also, a fat man with man boobs will not look the same on the image as a pre-op transwoman of normal weight. It will be very obvious who is transsexual with that scanner. Remember these scanners will be installed in airports around the world in countries having despicable records for abusing if not killing LGBT people.
I must say, I usually don’t have high hopes when bringing up my trans identity in online discussions (at non-queer sites in particular, but even at queer sites that aren’t trans-focused). So it was a pleasant surprise to not be brushed off or dismissed. Someone else even said…
This is probably the first realistic argument AGAINST full body scanners that has appealed to my sense of reason.
Honestly – I didn’t have an issue with the scanners. The only potential for abuse I saw was just seeing naked people all day and well…that doesn’t bother me much. I’d rather someone see my dangly bits off in some other room than be patted down every damned time I go through an airport. To me THAT is more invasive. I honestly don’t think it’s the crisis that everyone’s making it out to be for the most part – and I’m a pretty strong advocate for privacy otherwise. What I have to see with things that become privacy issues are *sound* potential abuses before I can really judge them to be problematic. Your argument is the first I’ve heard of where this can cause an immediate threat to someone’s safety and livelihood – so thanks for pointing it out guys/gals.
Could the tone of online discussion be improving? I’m not holding my breath, but this was a nice surprise nonetheless.
random, trans
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discussion, online, safety
Themocracy
I’ve been looking at the news accounts of the scanners and thinking parallel thoughts (I was going to say the same thoughts but I guess I’m not worried about hiding a small penis…)
I stopped flying years ago because I used to have a much bigger thing about freaking out when people touched me and I got patted down in the Prague airport- they patted me, I backed up, they tried patting me, I backed up more, I got backed into a wall and they patted me, I got so keyed up I couldn’t speak again until around when the plane landed… good thing I was flying with other people, but I didn’t ever want that to happen again, so I stick with greyhound and megabus- which won’t work if I ever want to go to Prague. Maybe I could take greyhound over the border to Canada or Mexico and then fly.
Also, I always think that no security will be good enough if somebody(dies) really wants to hijack a plane… it’s a mark of how few people want to that it isn’t done much. I rarely go through a security without thinking about how I could circumvent it- and it would be easy peasy, particularly because of how I get waved through due to disability most of the time.
I’m sorry to hear you’ve had travel trouble! I completely agree that no security can completely stop someone who is willing to die for their cause. I don’t want to sound like that means we shouldn’t have any security at airports (or elsewhere) but I think pumping money into preventing the root causes of terrorism – whatever those causes may be – would be more of a long-term positive than the security theater that goes on these days.
Ugh. The profiling can be awfully annoying as well. On EVERY flight I took during transition (and I was flying roughly every other week), I was “randomly” searched. It seemed to stop happening more or less when I learned to drop most of the gender paranoia baggage. Funny that.
That sucks! The one time I flew without ‘matching documentation’ I managed to sneak through security without any trouble, but it was amusing (and nerve-jangling) to be “sir”ed one moment and “ma’am”ed the next…
[...] back in January, I posted about the new airport scanners, following a discussion I engaged in on another site: Without being sarcastic, some of us are [...]