How Unworldly Are The Pretend Security People Of The TSA Who Grope You At The Airport?
It seems the repurposed mall food court workers now providing "security" (aka a massive, pointless slowdown and search of passengers) need a memo instructing them in the most basic basics:
IUD is form of contraception that a woman's gynecologist inserts up her hoohoo. IEDs are something else.
Next they'll see a tampon in the x-ray machine and think, "Grenade!"
Patrick at January 20, 2017 12:59 AM
It's amazing that people act like they're providing anything more than a stumbling block and a time-suck between the airport door and the gate.
Amy Alkon at January 20, 2017 5:58 AM
Well, it's not necessarily the worker's fault that she'd never HEARD of an IUD and thought the passenger was misspeaking. Unless that's the type of birth control you want for yourself, there's not much compelling reason you should know about it - especially if you didn't have a comprehensive sex ed in school.* (Besides, while there have been improvements in the IUD, plenty of women, even in long-term relationships, AVOID using it for painful reasons - though that may well change, as the article indicated.)
Also, for all we know, the worker may have come from a Third World country where IUDs are scarce.
*And, as I've said before, if all some kids get is abstinence-only education in school, the teacher should be a volunteer. That is, tax dollars (MILLIONS, mind you) should not be paying for such classes. Why? Because if parents can't convince their own kids to abstain at least until the kids leave home for good, so as not to break the parents' hearts, why would a stranger in class have a better success rate?
lenona at January 20, 2017 7:05 AM
Not to mention that while it would be great if young people cared about becoming well-read on ALL subjects before they become adults, the inconvenient truth about recreational, challenging reading AND schoolwork is that both take a lot of time away from exercise and the cultivating of direct social skills - and once your schoolwork for the day is done, Facebook, video games, and running around with friends are so much more fun anyway. If you focus on books or creative hobbies instead, what are the chances that you actually know anyone in school who shares those pastimes and will want you as a friend because of them?
lenona at January 20, 2017 7:38 AM
I'm not defending the TSA by any means; but, why on earth would someone make any joke when dealing with security?
Whenever my belt buckle sets off someone's wand, I pull my loose shirt up and say, and show, that I have a large belt buckle.
Now, granted she can't exactly show that she has an IUD; but, come one! What makes her think a "joke" is appropriate in this situation?
Yea, I know. I'll get a lot of grief for thinking this way - "What's the matter don't the TSA have a sense of humor?" But, I do think a security screening is NOT the appropriate place to be making jokes. Someone trying to get something past security might very well try to use humor to deflect scrutiny.
Joking, trying to get personal (say Mohammed, are you married? do you have children?), is one thing that many special ops are taught to do if they get captured. So, why wouldn't US security be on the look out for the same tactic being used on them?
charles at January 21, 2017 5:26 PM
Exactly, Charles. Other people have said just that on other sites. "What sort of dimwit tries to make jokes with security or border agents?"
And I'm guessing that when it comes to the workers' training, an IUD is not something they get taught about, normally. (Yes, I know they often include copper, but if they typically set off the metal detectors, we'd hear about that more often.)
So the only reason the subject is likely to come up is if the passenger MENTIONS it. Again, we shouldn't be shocked that there's no shortage of women who have a very sex-ed deprived and/or very religious background - say, in a state like Texas - and have never heard of these things. There's more than one state like that in the U.S. - and more than one country.
And, FWIW, according to one page at Guttmacher.org, just over 10% of women (who USE contraception, that is) in the U.S. use the IUD. More than twice as many use the Pill.
lenona at January 22, 2017 4:13 PM
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