Airport Body Scanners – Mind Rape?
 

I rarely fly, but about two weeks ago, I flew out of a major airport. It was the middle of the day and there were no lines at the security gate. At the gate where I was at, there was one line leading to two machines. One was the standard x-ray walk-through, and the other was one of the new body scanners. I was more concerned with getting all of my things into the gray bin then I was with watching others – I even forgot to take off my shoes. There was one security guard sitting between the two machines, and as I approached, he pointed me to go through the standard x-ray line. But right before me, he had pointed an attractive businesswoman to the new scanner. I got just a glimpse of her posing with her legs spread, arms out, and chest out. After I got through my x-ray and was retrieving my belongings, I noticed that two other attractive business-type women had gone through the scanner line. One was posing in the scanner, the other was putting on her belt, shoes, and jacket.

A very small cross-section, but I wondered if the security men were deliberately sending attractive women through the body scanner. I half-thought of sticking around and watching, but I instead moved on to my flight. I haven’t paid too close attention to the stories about these scanners, but I knew the gist – images that see through clothes; virtually naked; somebody in a separate room was looking at them, couldn’t copy them. Afterwards, I looked online enough to know that there’s some questions about who is actually looking at them and saving the images. Some people have suggested that it’s all a government plot to control our lives, but I don’t get that paranoid. But all of the available scanned images online are a handful of the same images that the security people are releasing. Are some of the images much more revealing?

My opinion at the moment is that it doesn’t matter who is actually seeing the see-through images, or what they show. What more matters, in my opinion, is what those women were THINKING. Little doubt that these women all have slightly different feelings. Some are probably used to it by now and really don’t think about it much. Some probably have some feelings of embarrassment at the process. Some may be extremely humiliated by the ordeal of having to “pose” for a revealing picture, while in public as others like myself look on. All I know is that I really didn’t want to have to pose for those things. I glimpsed at the eyes of the first woman getting scanned. I thought I detected the expression of someone who was trying hard not to be humiliated. Trying not to think about the stranger(s) looking right through her clothes, or the men telling her how to pose, or the crowd around her watching her ordeal.

Just my observations and opinions. Anybody have any thoughts or experiences yet with the body scanners?

Man if anyone can get turned by an xray body scanner pic then more power to them. I think this whole issue is just a bunch of BS.

Just sayin....

Fascinating. This is something that I did not know about.

In America, they use every tragedy, to advance their own nonsense, so in this case, that is exactly what it is. Invading someone's privacy just and justifying it with things that happened in the past. Yes it is true, you can have a plastic gun or weapon, so a device like this might be able to detect it (not sure for certain), but the policies in place that determine who gets scanned and who doesn't, either aren't in place, or are just getting ignored.

We have to remember, that these machines are run by humans, which are emotional beings. There emotions drive them to do what they do. So you have some guy working as a security guard in a airport, who has the power to look at hot naked women all day long, and get away with it. Well not all men would take advantage of this, but some will. This is true in every field, whether you are a police officer or politician or pastor. They have the ability, or I should say free will to do the right or wrong thing.

I know right and wrong is subjective at is core, but there are some things that almost can't be argued.

Example, it might be wrong to single out Muslims or Arabic people or a person who looks a certain way because of the irrational fear that they are a terrorist, and will do something to cause loss of life. That in itself is wrong, but can be argued that it is right. I will agree that it can be viewed either way. Now if you take the same base principle and then take hot Caucasian women and place them in the machine, then there is no way that it can even remotely be argued that it is right, cause it is just wrong.

Again, I haven't researched the machines, or the policies of the who gets singled out for the machine, so all of this is my opinion. They could have something in place where they have to scan people who would never be what they are looking for, just so they can put up the argument that they are not singling out people. America is very devious like that.

So in the sense of keeping it on the topic of this room on this board, I would say it is a form of rape, because the women has no choice. She might be traveling somewhere for work, or something else important. She has already paid her money, and now all she wants to do is get on the plane. She gets to the gate and is told that she has to go through the machine. She has no choice, so it's more along the lines of black mail where the person says yes, but only because of the situation that they are put in. They in a sense are not giving consent per se. If they simple walked through a metal detector, it is non-evasive, and doesn't actually show anything, it just alerts security to if they have metal objects on them or not.

Anyway, thanks for the food for thought.

+ Rep for you my friend.

Well, to really respond to this I'd need to see some stats on who gets scanned and who does not. But such stats would quickly break down as to what one guy considers hot versus another. So, I'm going to ignore that for now as everything here would be anecdotal or objective at best.

The real issue is to what extent do we scan passengers. And considering the events of the last week, baggage or cargo as well I have to wonder what length do we go to protect ourselves? And when I say "we" I mean that in a collective sense. The governments of the world have a collective interest in protecting their citizens. As individuals I have to assume we all share the desire to stay alive. So the question really comes down to where to draw the line.

I for one feel that if every traveler was scanned in the same way it would eliminate the problem. I'm thinking that is the way we need to be headed. From what I see the original issues seems to be that the process is flawed and might allow for the perceptions of some to determine who gets screened. That's not right.

As to addressing the subject of rape. If I'm the one getting scanned who am I to know that the "person" viewing me isn't interested in exactly that? I'm not going to get any assurances on that either way whether I'm getting screened by a male or a female. But the difference is that I don't view it as rape. I look at this as a necessary evil to keeping the plane I'm about to board from getting hijacked or worse.

I realize the TSA people aren't exactly on the same professional level as doctors, but I can certainly imagine multiple situations I've been in would be considered rape in the mental way despite ourselves thinking it's simply a physical we are getting. I bring this up because I know that both men and women submit themselves to procedures that are embarrassing at best but we do it as we know it is best for us. Is it degrading? Certainly. But it is also necessary.

Maybe I'm looking at things from a different point of view. I do fly frequently and am all for making it safer. And if that means I get scanned, so be it.

So you're saying you have a big dong, and you don't care if people look at it?

I'm with mac on this. If anyone can get off on the images generated by these scanners all power to them. That being said the hot chick in the bottom right piture has a gun so its all worthwhile (hot chick terrorists? who knew?)

These scanners can of course be useful. Anything thats quicker than a traditional search and speeds up things in airport secruity can only be good. Particularly if you fly alot. Its just if they begin to proliferate into other areas of life. Not sure they would be appropriate for nightclubs for example. Besides the fact that most girls going in are half naked anyhow I just would never trust the typical doorman with this type of thing. Sorry doormen of the world but theres alot of guys in your job that let your whole profession down.

Of course I wouldn't mind owning one of these devices. I just hope its USB :D

This is the part I don't get either. The picture quality isn't very good at all. I get a bigger hard-on from the vanilla celeb pictures than I do from the images that these scanners display.

For now, with the metal detectors still in place, body scanners are voluntary. Agents may steer some travelers toward a scanner depending on wait times in various lines, but for the most part, you'll be able to look around and choose the lane you want to go through. If an agent does insist you join a line with a scanner, you can refuse, but you'll get a physical pat-down. Screeners might also use hand wands to check for suspect items.

TSA says its scanners don't store or save images, and emphasize that the screeners looking at the images never see passengers in-person. Some scientists say the true long term health effects of these technologies are unknown. Experts warn full body scanners at airports could increase your risk of skin cancer

I think the best way to handle the controversy of how revealing the images are, is to have separate scanners for male and females, that way the person doing the screening can be of the same gender as the person being screened

I'm not sure I agree. If the screener was gay then they could get the same presumed sexual satisfaction as a man checking a woman or vice versa.

From my point of view I think I'd be more worried about a gay guy checking me on the screen over rather than a woman. Don't get me wrong about gays - I have several that are friends. I just don't think this is a situation where you can have such a simple solution because from everything I read the issue with scanners comes down to being sexual in nature.

well said :skull-big:skull-big:skull-big

Let me see if I got this straight.

Security guard: "Walk through this scanner so I can see you naked."

Random female: "No, I don't want to do that."

Security guard: "Well if you don't I'm gonna have to feel you up, I mean pat you down."

Wow, that is wonderful, maybe I should become a security guard.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

It is possible that the male screener at the airport screening you could be gay, as it is possible that the cook at your favorite eatery didn't wash his hands after going to the bathroom, just prior to you placing your order. Something's in life we just have no control over, and like you said, this situation, as many other situations in life have no simple solutions, society can only put in place policies that benefit the majority.

This is just a thought, but perhaps if the airport can have the same gender screening, they could have the same gender patting you down, and if they insist on doing a cavity search they are probably gay.

My dear Sierra,

You have a very jaundiced view of us males do you not?

Yup, and that is the point, I'll insist on beating the crap out of them, or getting the crap beat out of me, since they will probably get on the radio and call their friends and jump me.

My darling Batffink,

Not all of you. :)

The mere fact that we are having this conversation speaks volumes.

The grainy, barely discernible outline of a woman's breast is going to somehow create raging hardons among TSA screeners? Really?

Honest to God, Batffink - read up a minute and ask me that question again.

Let me do some math here.

Looks at a woman's big breast who is fully covered = gets hardon.

Looks at women in her bra = gets hardon.

Look at a woman's breast in a video game = gets hardon.

Looks at a cartoon woman's breast = gets hardon.

Looks at two mountains side by side = gets hardon.

The wind blows = gets hardon.

Wakes up in the morning = has hardon.

The above math has brought me to the conclusion that...

Looking at grainy, barely discernible outline of a woman's breast all day long = gets hardon's all through out the day.

P.S. Looks at Sierra's avatars breast = gets hardon.

It's not our mistake, we was made that way. ;)