Yesterday dudely Harpyness fan Christopher F. sent me a link to a column on Philly.com about an incident at the Philadelphia airport which pretty much sews up everything I hate about air travel and everything I hate about the Patriarchy. Thanks, Chris!
Rebecca Solomon is 22 and a student at the University of Michigan, and on Jan. 5 she was flying back to school. She made sure she arrived at Philadelphia International Airport 90 minutes before takeoff. What happened to her lasted only 20 seconds, but she says they were the longest 20 seconds of her life.
After pulling her laptop out of her carry-on bag, sliding the items through the scanning machines, and walking through a detector, she went to collect her things. A TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him. Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on – the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder.
She remembers his words: “Where did you get it?”
Two thoughts came to her in a jumble: A terrorist was using her to sneak bomb-detonating materials on the plane. Or a drug dealer had made her an unwitting mule, planting coke or some other trouble in her bag while she wasn’t looking.
Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK.
Solomon, 5-foot-3 and traveling alone, looked up at the man in the black shirt and fought back tears. Put yourself in her place and count out 20 seconds. Her heart pounded. She started to sweat. She panicked at having to explain something she couldn’t.
Now picture her expression as the TSA employee started to smile.
Just kidding, he said. He waved the baggie. It was his.
And so she collected her things, stunned, and the tears began to fall. Another passenger, a woman traveling to Colorado, consoled her as others who had witnessed the confrontation went about their business. Solomon and the woman walked to their gates, where each called for security and reported what had happened.
A joke? You’re not serious. Was he hitting on her? Was he flexing his muscle? Who at a time of heightened security and rattled nerves would play so cavalierly with a passenger’s emotions?
Good question. I know I’ll get accused of being a paranoid feminazi, but I’m 99% sure this asshole would not have done that to a male passenger; the fact that she was a young, petite woman traveling alone was why he pulled that stunt, and why he felt he could get away with it. In fact, I went through something similar at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi earlier this month: a security screener pulled some harmless items from my carry-on and used it as an excuse to make me stand there while he asked me increasingly inappropriate and flirtatious personal questions about my religion, my clothes, whether I was married, etc. Two of his colleagues drifted over to leer while he questioned me. After a minute or two of this, I was almost shaking with humiliation and impotent anger. My sister, who had gone ahead of me in the security line, came over and stood next to me, scowling, which gave me enough courage to say in a loud voice “Why are you doing this? Who’s your boss?” At that, the assholes decided the show was over and handed my bag back to me. I felt sick to my stomach about it for hours afterwards.
It’s not like this is anything new. Men in power–especially the police and military–have used their authority to harrass and abuse women for most of human history, so it stands to reason that some asshole in the TSA would give it a try. The most unpleasant realities of being female are the ways big and small we spend most of our lives dealing with this brand of bullshit. From the boys on the playground who pull our pigtails to the men who grope us on the streets and harass us in the office, we live in a patriarchial culture which teaches them that it’s okay to disrespect and mistreat women for their own amusement or gratification, and then pass it off as “just a joke.”
I’m glad to see that in this case, it appears the asshole got his comeuppance:
“The TSA views this employee’s behavior to be highly inappropriate and unprofessional,” she wrote. “We can assure travelers this employee has been disciplined by TSA management at Philadelphia International Airport, and he has expressed remorse for his actions.”
Ann Davis, the TSA spokeswoman, said this afternoon that the worker is no longer employed by the agency as of today. She said privacy laws prevented her from saying if he was fired or left on his own.
I wonder how many women this prize douche traumatized before someone busted him. I only wish we had his name and could let him know personally what we think of his little joke.
Infuriating. The more I think about it, the worse it seems. Sure, he didn’t physically assault her, but his point was to humiliate her. For a LARF. He needs to hand in his Humanity Card along with his TSA clearance, AFAIC.
Between this, and another unfortunate tale I encountered this week of an older man in power harassing a much younger female in his profession, I am just about ready to start busting up dudes right and left. I know they aren’t all to blame, but it’s just so hard to tell who the asshats are until they pull shit like that. And yes, I’m sure he wouldn’t have pulled that shit on a guy. Somehow it’s funny to upset/humiliate/embarass women. Then it’s all our fault for not gettin the “joke” or “having no sense of humor”.
I agree that it’s upsetting, but I’m not sure why it was important to mention her height in the original article, or for you, Becky, to comment on her being “petite.” I’m honestly curious: does that make the situation more upsetting than if it had happened to a larger woman? I know you’re not saying that’s why the situation was so fucked up, but does her size make it moreso?
Harpies and friends, this is when you pull out your phone and take his picture. Then you ask for his name and badge number, if any. You are allowed to photograph him because he’s in a public place, as I understand it. It’s amazing how much bullies hate having their actions be recorded for posterity.
Sickening. I have had similar things happen so many times (though not nearly on this level), that I’m practically seeing red after reading this.
@MadrasSoup: Yes, I do think size matters. If you’re larger, people are less likely to see you as vulnerable and try to exploit that. Bullies rarely pick on someone their own size–they always go for the people they perceive as smaller and weaker.
There’s a lot of education-related data that shows that tall/big children get bullied less in school than short/slight children, and I think that carries on into adulthood.
All he did was lose his job?! If a non-TSA employee made a joke about someone carrying explosives, etc. they’d be arrested.
Good for her for reporting him. She probably wasn’t the first person who he did it too, but she was the first who complained. I wouldn’t have had the guts to stand up for myself like that at 22 and I wonder if she would have if that woman hadn’t comforted her and talked to her afterwards.
@MadrasSoup It all folds into the whole women must constantly diet to be as SMALL as possible thing. The smaller we are the more easily mistreated and ignored we are.
Bullies only bully people smaller than they are.
This sounds awful. That poor girl! Good for her for reporting it. It makes me feel lucky that the worst I’ve gotten is being repeatedly questioned about the contents of my carry-on and it being searched before they realized the problem was a jar of peanut butter.
This makes me want to smuggle one of my dogs into my coat so that they’ll take out any asshole who attempts this shit. I’m also glad I took my two flights this month BEFORE reading this. It’s really unconscionable.
MadrasSoup, in my experience, my very tall friends get way more obnoxious random comments than I do, but nobody every harasses them in a threatening way or gets in their face. When I’m street harassed (I’m 5’2″ in shoes), I get much more invasion of personal space, much more looming, and much more borderline-threatening comments.
The Philly airport security folk are douchebags of the highest order. They make people wait on the shoulder of the highway since they don’t allow cars to idle around on airport grounds to wait to pick up their loved ones (so what if someone had an accident/a flat/ran out of gas in the same area? Assholes.) and when I had to fly out of there a little over a year ago after I’d gone through hell to get a replacement ticket after my flight home from college had been cancelled in Newark the day before, they wanded me for no particular reason whatsoever and inspected all my stuff—and mercifully, they didn’t make fun of me for having my childhood stuffed rabbit with me, although I fully expected them too.
So even though this is an utterly appalling thing to hear about, I’m honestly not that surprised that the guards at that airport would do that.
Regarding the size issue, I also think it matters. One of my besties is short and petite, and she’s learned to emphasize the hard-ass aspect of her personality, especially in the corporate world, because otherwise men have a tendency to treat her like a child (until she rips them a new asshole, that is). I am several inches taller than the average American male even without heels. I’m not a hard-ass, but I am routinely described as “intimidating” by men. This is just one example, but I’ve seen this dynamic play out time and again.
I fully agree with the height and size comments. I am five seven with no shoes and when I go out I try to wear deco-platform 70′s shoes if I’m in a bar or pub. It puts off the assholes I tend to beacon in when I’m wearing my nice comfy shoes. I am past skinny, to the point of scrawny and I have actually been pitched across a bar before by a man who was wasted that I didn’t know and apparently he had a bet running with some friends as to how far he could whip me across the bar (all in fun for him of course.)
I have found that when I’m taller and can look down into their faces they don’t seem to like it very much and leave me alone.
Cat, I’m pretty sure that parking on the shoulder thing is actually illegal–there are definitely signs saying not to do it. But yeah, you’re only allowed to stop your car in the airport itself if you’re loading or unloading. If you’re waiting, you just have to circle. They just put in a new “cell phone lot” where you can wait, though, so maybe it’ll be a little better. Actually, I guess I’m going to find out tomorrow when I go to pick up my parents and grandmother!
How sad is it that as soon as I read the question “Where did you get it?” I thought it was a “joke”? I didn’t want to believe it. I’m just so horrified. Yeah, I’ve encountered plenty of men like that. Maybe that explains why I never leave the house if I don’t have to. Oh, and I’m five feet even.
I know I’m resurrecting a semi-old thread, but I wanted to add my two cents.
First, what that (former) employee did to her is terrible and I’m so glad he doesn’t work there anymore.
Second, @MadrasSoup — I can see how some people might feel like size plays into things, and I can see how studies can support some of this. *However* — I am about six feet tall, and biologically a woman, and my height has not helped protect me. I have never been described as “intimidating” or had my size spare me from abuse.
It’s incredibly frustrating for people to automatically assume because I am tall (or because I weigh more than the average person), that I get bullied less or that I am less likely to be picked on or intimidated.
My ex-husband was 5’8″ and over a hundred pounds smaller than me and he beat the sh*t out of me for months. No one would believe me at first because I’m taller and heavier; people assumed I was making it up or that it logically/physically could not happen. And the ex-boyfriend who tried to rape me (after a year of living together) was my height and much lighter than me.
And in elementary school, I was ruthlessly harassed, teased, shoved, stalked, etc. by fellow students, even though I was the tallest in the class, on the playground, etc., even at that age.
So let me testify — as a taller, heavier woman, I can be *Just As Intimidated/Threatened* by others (especially males) as a smaller, petite woman can. And when people say otherwise, they invalidate my experiences and the experiences of others.
Just as it is frustrating for people to ignore how a smaller woman could feel extra threatened because of her size, likewise it is frustrating for people to ignore how a bigger woman can still be just as harassed/threatened, despite her size.