In yesterday's Part I, "Coercion," set forth the case that, regardless of TSA denials, Americans are being coerced to comply with the current TSA gawk-n-grope-or-no-fly rules. Among the recognized forms of coercion is a threat to personal relationships.
You'll lose your job, which requires that you fly.
You won't get home for Christmas.
You may not make it to you father's deathbed, or his funeral.
The TSA policy is coercive, no mistake.
Part II deals with the process of enforced humiliation, including its sexual aspect.
Sexual Humiliation
Continuing to explore, I found that there is a world of studies on the subject of human dignity and humiliation.
From ....one (PDF) example:
Lindner... has defined humiliation as "...a process of subjugation that strips away pride, honor and dignity...Humiliation entails demeaning treatment that transgresses accepted expectations...[O]ne of the defining characteristics of humiliation...is that the victim is forced into passivity, acted upon, made helpless"...[A]cts of humiliation tear down the very core of the individual by invoking a deep sense of shame that comes with forced passivity.
Here is the kernel.
Demeaning treatment that transgresses accepted expectations.
Naked scans and intimate touching by (non-medically-helping) strangers hugely transgress very basic and long-standing social norms in this country and indeed, everywhere in the world and very, very far back in human history.
Normal human beings in virtually every society internalize this norm from the age of 2 to 4 years: private parts are supposed to be just that, private.
The Judaeo-Christian traditionreflects the long history and depth of conditioning, virtually amounting to instinct, of privacy regarding the genitals among human beings.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
The reflexive shame of inadvertent nakedness becomes humiliation when nakedness is forced upon us. Having our genitals exposed to sight and/or touch against our will strips away our human dignity, and demeans us.
(True, some people report that they find this erotic; most, though, just the reverse.)
Even in the animal world, exposing vulnerable and normally protected parts to another (when not a prelude to sex), is an explicit signal of social inferiority.
One chimp "presents" his or her posterior to another as a sign of submissiveness. A dog rolls on its back to show the vulnerable tummy. Acts like these are calculated to signal that the submitting animal recognizes the superior power of the other and as such, prevent the dominant animal from attacking.
A sensed connection between exposing the genitals to an authority figure and acknowledging social inferiority probably still exists somewhere deep in the animal part of our human brain and may partly account for our natural revulsion (in most cases) against showing them to all and sundry.
It also redoubles
...the deep sense of shame that comes with enforced passivity.
Being helpless to defend oneself against any socially transgressive act is also, in itself, shaming. If the act is sexual, all the more so.
Rape victims routinely report shame as a primary emotion resulting from the crime, one of the most horrifically transgressive acts that can be visited on a person. Rape is about sex and power and even more about power than about sex, as Susan Brownmiller's pioneering work, Against Our Will, established in 1975.
Enforced passivity in the face of transgressive sexual treatment also describes the procedures demanded by TSA officials.
One of the rationalizations by TSA is that there is no sexual aspect to these screenings. Defenders have commented that it’s okay because screeners surely don’t like it either, or that screeners inevitably will become so inured to viewing and/or touching travelers’ genitals that erotic thoughts will cease.
Again poppycock.
There will inevitably be a certain number of screeners who find the power relationship erotic, in that they get to see and/or touch others’ genitals while remaining clothed (indeed, clothed in the uniformed trappings of power) or invisible themselves. This kind thing can hardly be prevented without the most in-depth psychological screening, and perhaps not even then.
If other front-line screeners are revolted by the procedures, as I gather many are, then they too are being subjected to coerced sexual humiliation in being forced to view and/or handle others’ genitals as a condition of employment.
And most likely, more general erotic reactions will be pervasive. Human beings are programmed to be very, very interested in sex. That is part of our genetic endowment motivating us to reproduce. Reportedly, most males have thoughts about sex just about every minute of the day.
Not being male, I can’t speak to that, but surely if someone (other than a medical professional) is so thoroughly deadened to contact with the genital parts of others that no erotic thoughts arise, then some psychological damage has been done to that person.
This kind of humiliation is not just a fleeting emotion.
The long-term consequences of humiliation (sexually oriented humilation or otherwise), as listed in various studies include apathy, depression, PTSD, OCD, revenge fantasies, paranoia, and sadistic behavior.
Short term consequences? This is from the first-person account of a young mother who got it both going and coming. Note, she wasn’t a refusenik. For some reason her scan failed to satisfy the TSA agent. She is not a political blogger BTW. Her blog, "Our Little Chatterboxes," is focused on bringing up a special-needs child. Just an excerpt:
I went through the x-ray machine and metal detector, carrying the baby, with no incident...
She then said, I need to reach in and feel along the inside of your waistband. She felt along my waistline, moved behind me, then proceeded to feel both of my buttocks. She reached from behind in the middle of my buttocks towards my vagina area...She then felt my inner thighs and my vagina area, touching both of my labia....
She then told me that I could put my shoes on and I asked if I could pick up the baby, she replied Yes...I stood there holding my baby in shock. I did not move for almost a minute.
...I began shaking and felt completely violated, abused and assaulted by the TSA agent. I shook for several hours, and woke up the next day shaking...
This is not the reaction of a prude. It is the reaction of someone who has been forced into passive endurance of a profoundly humilating experience, with a distinct sexual tenor. A mini-rape.
No question. These searches constitute coerced sexual humiliation. And real harm is being done.
Tomorrow...what connects the TSA protocol with Abu Ghraib?