Today I arrived early for a flight from SAT and thought that I'd spend some time observing the checkpoint. SAT had four security lines open, two WTMD, and two BKSX.

The backscatter lines were the most interesting because of the differences between the male and female experiences. I observed a few dozen screenings of each gender. The differences were striking.

No males received a full secondary screening. Two females got the full secondary -- hair, breasts, groin, legs, etc.

Only a few males had one part of their body screened by a TSO after the backscatter. Every single female had her hair touched by the female TSO's gloved hand, and only two females did not also have at least one other part of their body inspected. The most popular areas for inspection were wrists (jewelry), breasts, and waistbands.

The female TSO did not change her gloves the entire time I was observing her. The gloves that were dragged over clothes and put down waistbands were the same ones that subsequently touched skin and hair. Of course, no new gloves were at the location where the touching was taking place. New gloves were only located where the full secondaries took place.

In short, the usual case for males had them walking into the machine, assuming the surrender pose, walking out, standing a moment, and going on their merry way, irradiated, dumb, and happy.

The usual case for women was irradiation with increased invasiveness with delay, and touching with dirty gloves.