TSA's impact on teen girls
 

Interesting. Rather wild speculation, but interesting. from http://crustylogic.blogspot.com/

Other unintended consequences?

That's actually probably not that far off base.

I'd be curious what some of the women on here think. If they think this would have impacted them when they were teens.

It seems a bit farfetched to me. In Summer, large numbers of European women go topless on beaches, doesn't mean they're running around sending nekkid pictures of themselves to all and sundry.

As the mother of two daughters I don't think Janet's policies are going to have a major impact on the desensitization of the teenage psyche toward nudity and propriety - television and movies has done that already...thank you.

I could see it making a difference if they travel a lot & are groped repeatedly. Depending on the person, that could either desensitize them or build up a lot of deep-seated resentment.

Too many people don't even a clue as to what the Nude-O-Scopes themselves do. If you've no concept of what it does, how can it desensitize you?

On another level, I assume (I'm 30-40 years too late to enjoy the "benefits" of sexting, etc.), I would assume that part of the stimulus for participating is the reaction/response you get from the recipient, and maybe some pictures in return. All we get out of TSA is more abuse. That's hardly an incentive to be desensitized & participate in other activities.

The only real risk I see here is unintentionally teaching kids that it's OK for others to paw you.

What if these girls file police reports for sexual assault, unwanted sexual conduct, sexual misconduct, etc. against individual TSOs?

all minors, male or female should be filing sexual assault complaints with LE after every patdown.

^^^

That would be a good idea.

I agree with filing police reports. What I'm wondering though is to what extent this really could lower some, or many, teen girls resistance to sexual advances? Is this a pretty major change in a fundamental line that's existed in our society prior to this and that will have a major unintended consequence on teen girls? My guess is that many will know exactly what is happening in the nude-o-scope (though Mike is right, many will not).

If you're a teen girl:

Will knowing that you're having a nude pic of yourself taken a dozen times a year for some guy in a back room lower your resistance to sending one to some guy you'd really like to go out with?

If you get used to getting your crotch groped by TSA, will you be less likely to resist your boyfriend or whatever guy you happen to be with?

Absolutely. ^ ^

Arguably, one could expect the opposite effect.

Young people today are totally inculcated with the whole anti-bullying, anti-sexism, anti-harassment message. Then they see that government employees can look into their underwear and neither they nor their parents can do anything about it.

Adults are already (more or less) locked into a career path. If they're in a travel-requiring job, they're somewhat stuck (especially in a down economy).

If teens and young people experience air travel as a source of embarrassment and sexual harassment, or they see their parents actively avoiding air travel for that reason, will that affect their relationship with the adults they are supposed to trust? Will that affect their college and career choices? Will that effect long term economic development?

I'm really struggling to see why it should? The European experience would suggest not.

And as a second point - so long as its their choice do so, why should we care if they do?

I think we're going to see more incidents of 'grooming' under the guise of frisking - for both boys and girls.

Young kids go to the airport. They are now told they have to let strangers touch them to protect them from the 'bad guys'. They see their parents submit. They sense the tension and discomfort (come on, it's too much to believe that even those who approve of this stuff enjoy it. I believe even Pistole described it as 'uncomfortable' but said our social norms will have to change).

So young kids will be told that strangers can touch them, they can expect to be uncomfortable and not like it, it will be to 'protect' them. So how long before a scoutmaster or a coach 'frisks' kids to 'protect' them, when in fact it's the first step in grooming a kid. Worst of all, we can't even tell our kids to follow their instincts - if it doesn't feel right, say no. They will have been trained to accept invasive touching by strangers, even if it makes them feel uncomfortable. And they will probably have asked 'why?' or 'what if I say no?' at some point and been told in no uncertain terms 'you have to'.