Several women who flew through Dallas/Fort Worth's airport have filed complaints against the TSA claiming that officials asked them to walk through the body scanners multiple times. Why would female agents do such a thing? So the male agents viewing the scans could get a better look at their bodies. Ew.
Even though only female TSA agents perform searches on female passengers, no such rule applies to who looks at body scans. So, when you walk through one of those body scanner devices, there could very well be a booth full of snickering men pretending to honk your boobs with their index fingers.
One woman who suspected she was singled out by TSA agents spoke to a CBS station in Dallas. Ellen Terrell told a reporter that she was asked to go through the scanner three times, and that the female agent escorting her around told her that she had a "cute figure." Terrell says that the female agent was communicating with the male agents who were viewing the images. During their back and forth, Terrell says she heard the female agent say "Come on, guys!" and "They're not blurry. I'm going to let her go."
The station requested to see the more than 500 complaints filed against agency and found that many women noticed that TSA agents seemed to be "randomly" picking attractive women for additional screening. Among the other complaints they found— "I feel I was targeted by the TSA employee to go through the see-you-naked machine because I am a semi-attractive female." and "TSA staff ‘trolling' the lines looking for people to pull out was unprofessional." and "When I looked around, I saw that there were only women that were "told" to go through this machine. There were no men."
Jesus Christ. TSA agents hiding behind "national security" to get their rocks off? The terrorists have won.
According to CBS, DFW no longer uses the body scan machines that show detailed images of passengers' bodies and have switched to using technology that only shows vague outlines. But the Naked Machines are still being used in 39 airports across the country.
When confronted with these claims of impropriety, the TSA did the normal TSA thing and acted like there's no possible way that any of the 58,000 or so employees on its payroll could be creepy jerks. "TSA does not profile passengers," the agency said in a statement.
It's important to note that if you're traveling and you're randomly or non-randomly selected to go through the body scanner, you're completely within your rights to refuse the scan. If you refuse, you'll receive something that walks the line between a pat-down and a grope from a female agent. So, would you rather run the risk that some dude in another room with his hands in his pants is analyzing your body for boner threats or allow a female stranger to boredly caress your bra's underwire? The choice is yours in this great land of freedom and possibility.
Female Passengers Say They're Targeted by the TSA [CBS local]