But there are a few places where the scanners have replaced the metal detectors entirely so your only choices are to be blasted with radiation or groped (the security check point I went through two weeks ago at San Diego airport was like this). I was surprised at how upset I was about the situation. I am concerned about the radiation from the scanners, and I think the grope is just totally inappropriate. It’s all the more galling because I don’t see how these measures enhance our safety. I didn’t know at the time that I could opt out of the scanner (there was nothing posted about this, and certainly no one told me I had any other option) so I went through it. Apparently the scanner revealed something suspicious about the top of my head so a TSA agent had to pat down my head afterwards. I was like, really?! Fucking ridiculous.

Since every act and attempted act (of which we are aware) of terrorism in the last decade has been perpetrated by MALES under 35 years of age, let’s emphasize THAT salient fact.

But they’d have to pay these true security personnel more, and pay for the training…so machines it is.

Meanwhile, I get to figure out a plan-of-action for getting my grown Autistic brother through a pat-down without him being detained for assaulting the agent! (Because we WILL be pulled, and they never listen to me, and chances are good he will flip out.) >_<

All of which is to say, you are right to be concerned if you think a pat-down will be triggering, but I’d hate to think of you panicking for the next couple months when it’s very possible that what you fear will not happen at all. (And I say this as someone who tends to work herself into a bit of a lather about things for weeks in advance).

My personal air-travel de-stressing trick is to put little drugstore-bought foam earplugs into my ears. Airports tend to be loud and chaotic and made of hard surfaces that reflect sound, and I find that if i can turn the volume down a little, I relax automatically. Thus far, no one has asked me to take the earplugs out at security. I basically wear the damn things all the time when traveling–I can hear what I need to, but the usual racket doesn’t make me as stressed.

Also, if you really feel like this could trigger a panic attack, get your doc to prescribe you a mg. or two of Ativan or Xanax or your preferred anti-anxiety med for when you fly. I think half the folks at airports are on them these days, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I’m trying to come up with good coping mechanisms to get me through this. My normal plans (playing the piano, petting one of my cats) can’t be done in an airport setting.

Does anyone have any suggestions or tips for getting through this in one piece? Chants, meditation, breathing exercises, anything. Please. (I considered wearing an adult diaper to help block the contact, but I’m worried it would just lead them to strip-search me.)

Of course, the tactics which have been used and perfected on minority populations since, um, Reconstruction? Dred Scott?, are going to bleed over into the mainstream. You didn’t hear these guys complaining when it was black teenagers who were being harassed, they felt safe because the police were keeping criminals off the streets, and if the kids hadn’t committed a crime yet, it was just a matter of time until they did. Blergh.

I’ve also seen a lot of jokes–you know, the “this problem is not as serious as you think it is, you idiots” kind of joke (at least it’s “you idiots” and not “stupid women”!)–framing the pat-downs as fun and sexy. Those are invariably from white men as well.