WTF! The first thing I thought of was: how amazing would it be for someone to walk up in a chastity belt and go through one of those detectors? What in the hell will happen then?

How do they check for artificial hips? I don't think a pat-down is going to verify that.

If you're a large-breasted woman, when you reach the TSA checkpoint you might want to yank your bra off and toss it in a tray. Not because TSA is demanding it, but because we'd just love to see that start happening a lot.

Gee, why don't we all just fly naked. I'm sure people would also like that. Plus, you can always look forward to the extra security "pat down" err, I mean fondle.

They had those machines set to hyper-sensitive for a bra to set off the alarm. I've asked the TSA people about underwires and body piercings before (I was afraid I wouldn't be able to take out my rook piercing if it set off the alarm) and they've always said the machines aren't set to be THAT sensitive.

Kinda makes me wonder if some smacked ass didn't mess with the settings to get his jollies.

Recent personal experience suggests that TSA is so variable between different airports that it is near to useless.

Oddly enough, my wife managed to travel out of NY JFK on an expired ID but was stopped on the return leg from Phoenix Sky Harbor. NY seems to have some of the most lax security around yet fly out of some middle of no-where airport and they have a bug up their butts because they have nothing better to do.

My mom's underwires set off an airport metal detector when I was about 11. I made fun of her for about a week. Karma paid me back: I now wear nearly the same size bra.

But I flew a few dozen times in 2007 and never once did my chest set off the metal detector.

@magic8ball: I had a feeling they used to give patients a card to carry that said they had an implant, but a quick google suggests that they don't do that anymore.

If you're a large-breasted woman, when you reach the TSA checkpoint you might want to yank your bra off and toss it in a tray. Not because TSA is demanding it, but because we'd just love to see that start happening a lot.

WOW! Sexist much. That is just a fucking ridiculous statement on the part of the author. I'm glad that YOU CHRIS would like to start seeing large breasted women take their bras off in public. I hope that you know all large breasted women exist to merely please YOUR ideal.
Hmmmmpfff.

@magic8ball:

Actually, they still do give "cards," but now, they're more like medical records to-go. My mom had a knee replacement and she has a document that not only has signatures and explanations on it, but an actual X-Ray of her knee.

@vivelafat: wow sensitive much? Go get a drink at happy hour and chill out.

Perhaps he was saying that he would love to see that happen a lot just to see the reaction from TSA and it would be a great show of disdain for this whole security theater.

See, it DOES happen! I refuse to wear bras with underwires when I fly for this very reason. Odds are, nothing would happen, but then you have a case like this and I would probably die of embarrassment.

"If you're a large-breasted woman, when you reach the TSA checkpoint you might want to yank your bra off and toss it in a tray. Not because TSA is demanding it, but because we'd just love to see that start happening a lot."

Nice, Chris. I'll be sure to wear my white tank top, too.

@vivelafat: Can you explain how wanting to look at body parts is sexist?

(no, I really mean it... first I gotta buy one!)

I am shocked and amazed by the lack of jokes about boobytraps.

About 6 weeks ago I had a little mishap on my motorcycle just two days before leaving on my honeymoon to Mexico...flying out of Oakland to Guadalajara. I thought I had broken my wrist since it was swelled like a balloon. So I went to ER, found out it was sprained, and they put an alloy splint on my arm. When I went through security at Oakland Airport, my splint set of the metal detector so Oakland TSA made me take the splint off and run it through x-ray. It hurt like hell to take it off and put it back on again but they were adamant about it. I tried to explain to them there's no way I could hide a gun in my arm but they were adamant. Assholes. I appreciate taking your job seriously but come on now...

@shepd: No. I will not. Maybe you should check out feminism 101.
@Tmoney02: Nice. Maybe I should just sit down and shut my mouth like a good girl too right? Can I wear a bra when I go out to happy hour or will that not please you?
The OP's situation is sexist up one side and down the other but this post, instead of decrying it, it encourages it. A river of sexism running through a consumerist post. What a shame.

@vivelafat: Surely there's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to see breasts, but that's not what I meant. I was thinking more along how Tmoney02 described it—sort of a comical update of the public bra-burning protests of the 70s. In fact, I think we should *all* toss our various bits of underwear in the bin from now on.

Me and the triple-Ds get the buzzer about 50% of the time. The first time at LaGuardia I had a pretty rugged pat-down in front of everyone by the lovely (not) TSA lady. After that, I've pretty much just been wanded repeatedly and sent through.

Everyone likes to look at boobies. It's a fact of life.

@howie_in_az: I know! I deleted the one I'd put in the post in order to give y'all an easy target, too, and still no one will bite. *sigh*

She said, 'We have to pat you down.'

Well at least it's not "HE said I have to pat you down". They get half a point for keeping the sexes the same.

@vivelafat: Wanting women to cause a show just to annoy the TSA is hardly sexist, just because they wear bras and have breasts. Perhaps you have a sexist mind that just sees everything as sexist?

@Chris Walters: There is nothing wrong with wanting to look at breasts. There is something wrong when you assume that A. Everyone wants to look at them.
B. only large breasted women should take their bras off. Some small or relatively small breasted women wear underwire bras.
I find it hard to believe that you don't see how I could misconstrue your statement in this manner. If you meant it more as a "lets all doff our underwear" thing then perhaps you should have clarified.

Mine has set off the wand before, when I was "randomly selected" for an in-depth screening, but I haven't had issues yet with the walk-though detectors. Thanks goodness, the agent screening me was sane enough to not give me trouble about it.

I would be pretty pissed if this happened to me.

This is why I don't wear bras to the airport. Well, this and the fact that I'm a guy.

"The TSA says they have to check for bombs."

But they want to check for something similar to the last word in that sentence.

@vivelafat: This doesn't just happen to women

@vivelafat: Very well. I hereby declare that I think ALL women should remove their bras at the security checkpoint. I'm not sure why we are assuming this means anyone will be flashing anyone else, so we'll make that part optional.

Men should remove their underwear, too.

@vivelafat: Also Chris please look at mir777 comment for why your wording was wrong. Everyone does NOT like boobies. @AirIntake: Um, yeah it is sexist. I could have feminist bingo on this site already. Feminazi accusations, reverse sexism, what's next telling me if I was only nicer people would listen to me?

My bra set off the metal detector the last time I flew. A female TSA agent gently patted me down and it really wasn't a big deal. The TSA is ridiculous 99% of the time, but I can't see why this bothered Kates so much.

As for the artificial joints- my grandmother has a couple and the hospital gave her a card to show if she sets off a metal detector.

@vivelafat: This is a story about a large breasted woman being forced to take her (probably) large bra off in public. There is nothing sexist with finding it funny if women did this en masse. The TSA would be embarrassed by their negative command being turned into a positive response, and that's what would be funny. This wouldn't be funny at all in a ha ha fat boobies and bras way. You truly don't understand feminism is you believe this to be sexist, and you undermine the women that worked so hard and do understand the movement.

@vivelafat: I agree with you completely. If one of us made a comment like that about a women in a story, we would suffer the wrath of the ban hammer.

I never wear an underwire to travel. I had a TSA agent tell me that anything that beeps has to be touched and that was that.

@srhbks: My mom has replacement hips, and the hospital gave her a card. The TSA does not care and they feel her up anyway.

@badhatharry:
LOL, Spinal Tap was the first thing I thought of when I saw this post as well.

@vivelafat:

Umm, reactive much? So much for your feminism if you don't see the connection to the bra burning of years past. And spare all of us the large breasted vs small breasted spiel, really, I'm actually surprised that anyone even responded to this tripe.

As for the story though, it is a bit ridiculous that it got to the point that she had to actually remove her bra, hopefully someone at least apologized or did something to assuage that near invasion of personal privacy.

@AirIntake @vivelafat: You got your Jezebel in my Consumerist.
(props to biggyfred)

This happened to me. They didn't give me the option to go into a private room; they patted me town in front of about 100 people. I was not happy. Just to make this clear, they don't "pat" you innocently and let you go on your way. They put their hand down between your breasts and run it down. Then they cup each breast to feel underneath. Absolutely humiliating.

I'll be wearing sports bras from now on.

@vivelafat: How about you get a sense of humor and relax. Nobody here really wants to see yours or any one else's breasts or underwear. You are just looking for something to complain about.

As to the TSA, it seems the terrorists have won since we now have to submit to these degrading searches of babies and grandmothers when it is young men of Arabic descent between the ages of 17 and 40 that caused all the trouble. But, we can't profile them because that offends someone's sensibility of fair play. Try to describe the perpetrator of a crime without describing their coloring or ethnicity.

@Chris Walters: I think my problem is that this situation is blatantly sexist. It is one that ONLY plagues women, and is a basic flaw in the TSA system (one of many, albeit) The fact that I, as someone with breasts should have to expect to get patted down at the airport merely because of my desire to contain said breasts is SEXIST. And yet you make no mention of that. The truth is, you didn't include men in your original statement because there is no intimate garment that men traditionally wear (that women do not)which would require them to basically consent to a pat down every time they had to fly. That is the problem. And you didn't even touch on that. Instead you said "let's have all the big breasted women take their bra's off to protest" You could have added, " just like at spring break WOOOOOOO! lets spray them with water at the same time WOOOOO!" And you invited comments on how everyone LURVS THEM SOME BOOBIES. WIth all due respect, that is an error in your judgment I believe.

@MercuryPDX: Ok, that was funny. See, feminazi's occasionally do have a sense of humor. (only when I am also actively kicking men in the balls though)

@Sarge1985: This happened to me to, the Christmas after 9/11; it was a couple of months after we started flying again. I was so embarrassed and humiliated. Even more so because I was traveling with my father and he had to witness his early-20s daughter being manhandled by not one but two male TSA agents. I asked for a female and they said none were available and I was not offered the option to go into a private room. They also told me to just go with the flow and it would go faster.

I don't think "going with the flow" involves two males.

Up until about a year ago I used to have to fly every month for work, domestically and internationally. Funny, it only happened to me that one time. But I tell you, every time I had to go through security I would get all anxious and nervous that it would happen again.

Like Jay Leno once said, aren't you glad the shoe bomber wasn't the underwear bomber? But seriously, I keep around one or two older bras with no wiring specifically for flying (they're more comfortable anyway).

@magic8ball:

You ask about artificial hips? I got one.

Nine times out of ten, it doesn't set off the detector, unless they have the sensitivity jacked up WAY high.

I am reminded of a lovely trip through LaGuardia one time where I was in a full suit, and tried to catch an earlier flight out of town after our meetings adjourned early. First the holier-than-thou TSA didn't like the size of my bag for carry on, which by the way passed through my arriving flight and the airline's requirement without issue, so off to the bag check I went.

When I returned, the TSA agents that gave me guff the first time around thought it was funny to slow the line down further when they saw I was in an obvious hurry to make the flight. When it came my turn to do the TSA shuffle, I set the detector off. I had removed my shoes and belt already, so there wasn't any metal on my body (I don't wear watches and the only jewelry I wear is my wedding band).

I tried explaining I had a fake hip, but the TSA agent wouldn't hear of it. I requested to be manually wanded, but again, they wouldn't - they wanted to fuck with me and make me miss the flight. After going through the detector 3 times, each time either having to remove something or walk some weird way (and watching the agents have fun with this) I set it off every time. Finally I got pissed and raised my voice.

"I told you three times already, I have a fake hip!"

And I dropped my pants right there and showed them the huge scar.

At that point they saw it prudent to let me go.

And yes - those bastards made me miss the flight, so I got to enjoy lovely LaGuardia for the next six hours.

@AirIntake: Why would this be funny if women did it in mass? Why would this be a positive response? I know you think I am doing this just to be an asshole. I'm not. I'm a woman telling you I think it's sexist. Why is it so hard for you to accept that just because you aren't seeing it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist?

"If you're a large-breasted woman, when you reach the TSA checkpoint you might want to yank your bra off and toss it in a tray. Not because TSA is demanding it, but because we'd just love to see that start happening a lot.">/I>

I just want to point out that for us large-boobied ladies, it's not that easy to just "yank off my bra and toss it in a tray." I'd probably rip something, accidently flash someone, or hurt myself. How great! You've been watching too many porn movies if you think it's that simple.

And "everyone does not luv boobies." I in fact hate mine. They are way too large in proportion to my body and give me back problems (especially when not corralled). But hey, it would entertain the other travelers so we should just do it!

It was an ambiguitous enough comment that it's hard to tell if it was sexist, but it was definitely insensitive.

#$$@$#@@$# tags. Sorry.

@jakesprincess: Sorry that you had to go through that. Super sucks.

@vivelafat: Wow. People are trying to be nice to you, trying to keep things nice and calm, and you won't have any of it! Why are you still going on and on and on and on? Maybe I should be the first person to point out that this type of carrying on is against Consumerist commenting rules. It has taken the comments off the topic at hand!