Because I wear skirts and dresses, over the last few years I have been routinely subjected to a "secondary search" after passing through the primary airport security. This means that I pass through the detectors without setting off any alarm but am nevertheless detained for a body search.I travel a great deal and accepted this secondary search procedure as a consequence of that travel. As uncomfortable as I was being "wanded" from head to toe, I was still able to limit the intrusion and, more than once, warned a security agent that she had placed the wand as far up my inner thigh as I would permit.Her husband and kids can't believe how often she gets the secondary search. And now, with the pat-downs, it's worse:
Recently, however, the secondary procedure has changed and is now being conducted by hand and with direct contact on the inner thigh, the genital area, and across the breasts, including running a finger under the bra. If you attempt to limit the physical intrusion, you will be warned and then told to leave the airport.Her response is a "Security SuitTM": black leggings, black camisole, black shell. The last time she flew, she wore that under her dress, then removed the dress entirely to go through security. It worked.
Subjected to this procedure once, I determined to avoid it again. Flying on Wednesday before Thanksgiving this year, I wore a lightweight travel skirt with pantyhose underneath. As I feared, I was waved into the Plexiglas holding cell for a "secondary search" because "you are wearing a skirt." When the agent came for me, I confirmed that my skirt was the issue, removed it, and handed it to her saying, "There. Now you can see I have nothing under my skirt."
The agent refused to proceed, confining me again to the holding cell while she summoned her manager. I handed my skirt to the supervisor and asked that I not be subjected to the secondary search. "No," he replied, "you are required to put your skirt back on and proceed for a hand search, or you will not be permitted past the security area of the airport."
My husband and my teenage sons, who have been amazed at the frequency with which I am searched, then gawked in embarrassment, horror, and helplessness, unable to protect me from the long, detailed, public poking I then received. I closed my eyes because I could not bear to look at them. I determined then and there that I would redouble my efforts to avoid this public humiliation.
I say we all wear burkas and be done.
