Redirected Aggression, Retaliation And The TSA
Very, very interesting post on Psychology Today evolutionary psychologist Catherine Salmon on the TSA gropings (including mine and Susie Castillo's), and why women are especially upset at being forced to allow strangers to touch their sexual parts:
Amy's experience (and a book I recently read which I'll get to in a minute) got me to considering several things, the first being the incredible upset many women (and parents) have expressed following such invasions. There is a vast psychological literature on the sensitivity of women to any behavior that is (or could be interpreted as) sexually aggressive. Women have always been vulnerable to such assaults and have a number of adaptations designed to help prevent us from falling victim to sexual predators (despite that, sexual assaults and rapes do occur, especially under conditions when women are vulnerable, no adaptations are perfect). One imagines that a stranger (TSA agent) fondling your breasts or sticking their fingers between your labia would be very distressing just as being grabbed by a stranger on the street and receiving the same treatment would be. I'm actually stunned that a female agent would not realize how upsetting it would be to another woman to be handled in such an intimate way by an aggressive stranger. Instead, it appears that retaliation is on the agent's mind, both when she engaged in the original invasion and with her current attempt to make a buck.Which brings me to the book I recently read. It's called Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge
, written by David Barash and Judith Lipton. I found this book particularly interesting partially because so many people have suggested that there is a problem with some TSA agents (this issue has been raised with regard to other jobs in the past as well) taking pleasure in controlling and humiliating others. The title they originally entertained was "Passing the Pain Along" and that is what the book is about. People taking pleasure by wounding others when they've been wounded themselves. In particular, the authors focus on redirected aggression, those times when someone's been hurt (physically or emotionally) and can't take action against the person who hurt them. So they attack someone else (often an innocent bystander). A man comes home from work, humiliated in front of his boss by a co-worker and smacks around his son for a minor infraction (like forgetting to pick up the mail). It's not pretty but it happens more often than we like to think. People who feel the need to redirect their aggression may find certain jobs appealing. And certainly when others make them feel like they have to work harder, they may, if they have the power, simply retaliate directly and dish out humiliation in response.
It is my opinion that this agent who stuck her hand sideways into my vagina four times was doing it to punish me for not going quietly in the face of her "authority." I remember the arrogant and angry look on her face -- in fact, it's burned into my mind.
And I am still disgusted, humiliated and enraged when I think of the way I have been sexually groped three times by TSA agents -- in violation of my Fourth Amendment right against being searched without reasonable suspicion I've committed a crime.
I have a lot of respect for Salmon's work, which I've referenced in a number of columns, blog items, and articles. Her book that just came out: The Secret Power of Middle Children: How Middleborns Can Harness Their Unexpected and RemarkableAbilities
The last time I went in Dodger Stadium, they raped my penis. I sobbed hysterically, and howled to the moon (actually the westerly sun). I saw some guy in a Giants uniform bending over in a curtained-off booth, but you could see his legs and belt below the curtain and telltale form.
Men have evolved to be exceptionally sensitive to being raped, especially by another male.
The big question remains? Was Amy Alkon also anally raped? Or did she hold her butthole really tight, thus avoiding a rectal invasion?
And what would have out Founding Fathers said about a Giants fan, or Amy Alkon, enduring anal rape?
BOTU at September 29, 2011 9:43 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/09/29/redirected_aggr.html#comment-2522323">comment from BOTUDo you need attention so much, as a grown adult, that you have to turn every blog item here into a forum on you?
Amy Alkon
at September 29, 2011 9:50 AM
BOTU, seek help, you appear to be over the edge.
I would like to see the presidential candidates asked for their positions about the TSA.
Dave B at September 29, 2011 10:43 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/09/29/redirected_aggr.html#comment-2522464">comment from Dave BAs would I. It would say something about their respect for the Constitution and feelings about Big Government.
Amy Alkon
at September 29, 2011 12:15 PM
Obama has already GIVEN his opinion on the TSA - he actively mocked them in the State of the Union address, when he touted an advantage of rail travel is you could travel quickly "and without the pat-down".
I am at a loss as to how the level of intrusion we're at has not been smacked back into place. The only thing that's going to change it is from the airlines, when and if sales drop enough that it seriously affects their ability to function.
But all it's going to take is one nutjob getting on with something vaguely dangerous, and the public will scream "Why didn't you do MOOOOOoooore?"
Vinnie Bartilucci at September 29, 2011 12:44 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/09/29/redirected_aggr.html#comment-2522526">comment from Vinnie BartilucciFYI, no mainstream media outlet will take my op-ed on civil liberties and the TSA -- none that I've pitched so far, anyway. I pitched another at 4 a.m. when I woke up all worried (always good to make those bolting up in bed moments pay off) and then a friend suggested another outlet just now...wrote to a guy's wife to get my email to her husband, who'll need to send it to the editorial dept at a big site.
Boy, was I naive in thinking mainstream outlets would publish this. It just touches on what happens to me but is about the general erosion of our civil liberties and calls on people to speak up in a certain (creative) way.
Amy Alkon
at September 29, 2011 1:08 PM
"The last time I went in Dodger Stadium, they raped my penis."
Just remember: forever alone.
That's not a person who thinks anything of others.
Radwaste at September 29, 2011 2:10 PM
Whenever I see BOTU, I am reminded of the TFL crowd. So alone. So very alone.
Haakon Dahl at September 29, 2011 2:25 PM
Y'know, the First Amendment doesn't apply here. It's Amy's blog. If someone's choking the conversation, and stifling her attempts to collect opinions on a matter of personal importance to her, there's no reason she should put up with it.
Remember the NOAA guy? Amy's proven adept at identifying miscreant commenters in the past. The current irritant probably has people in his life —a wife, an employer, or authorities— who'd want to know about these obsessive sexual insults. (Or are they threats?)
We've all enjoyed anonymous commenting here. On the other hand, the woman oughta do what she needs to do.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at September 29, 2011 7:02 PM
Crid, you forgot the obvious choice - his mother.
After all, he's in her basement.
brian at September 29, 2011 9:42 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/09/29/redirected_aggr.html#comment-2523059">comment from Crid [CridComment at gmail]On the other hand, the woman oughta do what she needs to do.
Banned him. I'm fine with people disagreeing with me, and even posting about why I'm an idiot on one issue or another. I'm not fine with somebody hijacking (and ruining) the comments section here because they have some weird pathological need for attention.
For the record, I LOVED copying and pasting his IP into my banning software. LOVED.
Amy Alkon
at September 29, 2011 10:39 PM
Hey Crid, how can you even imagine that BOTU has a wife? I can't imagine a woman being with him long without finally walking off in disgust.
mpetrie98 at September 30, 2011 3:04 AM
The TSA has never stuck their hands in a womans labia...How do you do that with clothes on?
Give me a break....You know you can make a substantative argument or comment without exaggeration, why do people feel they have to exaggerate their experiences to make a point. Just tell the truth about what really occurred. Truth is stranger than fiction..I am not a fan of the need for TSA, but the way that the population has demeaned the employees who are on the airport floor doing what they have been directed to do by, ALL OF YOUR REPRESENTATIVES, yes, the CONGRESS and SENATE agree, condone, and require the processes that the the TSA uses.
Try voting once in a while if you don't like what is going on. It is fact that more people write and blog on entertainment sites than they write to their represebntatives. We are sad.
Since we can't take care of ourselves, apparently, we let the gov't do it for us and that means airline security with the TSA. Itis not going away...EVER
Simon at September 30, 2011 7:39 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/09/29/redirected_aggr.html#comment-2523446">comment from Simon"Never" -- except to Susie Castillo and me...and probably a lot of others who just took the abuse.
http://www.susiecastillo.net/blog/2011/4/25/my-tsa-pat-down-experience.html
This horrible woman did it with my pants as a barrier but I am telling the truth.
You're an ass. You make the assumption I don't vote. I'm one of the few people in my district who voted in the election in the wake of Jane Harman's resignation, and I held my morning-sick (morning-sick all day) pregnant neighbor's hand and walked her down there with me.
In my book, I See Rude People, I write about how little effect complaining to government has per an FOIA Act request by my friend and colleague, André-Tascha Lammé.
You are naive and your assumptions, in the face of zero evidence that you are correct, say everything about you, and it's not complimentary.
Amy Alkon
at September 30, 2011 7:52 AM
I posted this term elsewhere, but it needs to be burned into people's brains: DARVO. It means "Deny, Attack, Reverse-the-Victim-and-Offender". Psychopaths/sociopaths use this tactic regularly, and it's what TSA agent McGee is doing to Amy. Does that make the agent a psychopath? I can't say; perhaps she was coached to use that approach. Nonetheless, it is a psychopathic behaviour.
jefe at September 30, 2011 8:40 PM
The need for the TSA was abrogated by the courageous actions of the passengers of United Flight 93. That occurred about seventy minutes after the the the WTC II was hit.
This was further proven by the passengers subduing the shoe bomber and panty bomber. I'm sure there have been further incidents that haven't been reported.
In the meantime there have been more than twenty-five thousand (25,000) security lapses by the TSA.
I admit that I have flown post 9/11 four times. Three were job requirements. The other was to bury someone I loved very much.
As time goes on on -- I no longer want to give up my rights to get in a giant, crowded beer can. Thank you, but you can go to hell. Do not pas Go. Don not collect $200.00.
boardingarea.com/blogs/flyingwithfish/2011/07/15/tsas-25000-security-lapses-how-they-can-be-reduced/
Jim P. at September 30, 2011 10:40 PM
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