Um...no. If someone grabs me from behind, a stranger no less, then it's totally not consensual. (Seriously? Think about what you're implying in a general sense. We weren't on a date with other snuggly stuff happening and then I forgot to say "stop" ... this is more akin to a stranger coming up behind you in an alleyway) You can bet that if I had seen the person coming, I'd have said "stop, don't touch me!"

But @barbell I don't get the hostility. It's not my opinion per se, but my perhaps mistaken education, about what kind of radiation. I'm 100% prepared to believe that it was dangerous and mis-represented to me by the TSA, but I'm sure the guy told me that it was "non-ionizing" (my skepticism was trying to show in the quotation marks).

Anyway, yes, it was a very yucky and disturbing feeling!!

I don't actually think they are "just doing their jobs" - I think that's a cowardly write-off to excuse all kinds of abuses of our civil rights, for no appreciable security gain.

But if they're going to be doing ponytail-gropes, there's totally zero excuse for sneaking up on someone and grabbing them without (1) making eye contact, (2) donning fresh gloves, and (3) asking/telling what you plan to touch. Still assault-like, but then it's at least upfront.

Which leads me to think: do you think they didn't glove/announce/look-me-in-the-eye because they want it to be more powerful and rape-like, and LESS upfront? Triple yuck.

--LG