I'm a survivor of sexual assault...questions about TSA

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I was wondering just HOW much the TSA touches during pat downs. Do they put their hands up your shirt and grab your breasts, or down you underwear and touch your genitals/anus? If you wear a short skirt will they touch through your underwear or slide it over?

It really depends. But from what I hear, they can basically search inside bodily orifices, including anus and vagina, if they feel up to it. However, I understand the caveat is probably that the officer doing it must be of the same sex as you.

They can't refuse you a witness either. They have to let you have a travelling companion watch. I was looking for people who have actually been patted down, though.

Ive been patted down before as a result of such a check.

At its worse, speaking as a guy, there was a slight cuppage effect on the front.
And a flat hand slide up the back.

Well, my source was a friend of a friend in 2005 or so. But he got strip-searched being part of a high school class trip for being Middle Eastern. He had a sore butthole. Yep. Basically, you can get anything from a small unintrusive patdown to hurting butthole. And you never know what.

The main way to avoid such checks as a person with Aspergers is try to be as sociable as possible, and not look anxious/introverted. That's what I've learned as far as handling security in general.

That will be hard...I get panic attacks and flashbacks if I'm confronted with a situation like that. It wasn't penetrating but it still scarred me. I guess I just can't fly, which is fine because I don't want to visit anywhere outside the States anyway.

If you wanna leave the country, it's still possible to get a trip via boat basically anywhere. Cargo boats have rooms for passengers, but it takes like a week or two (or three) depending on routes and where you wanna go. It's also more expensive than flying in most cases. But as far as I know, no TSA type equivalent organization. However, customs and border patrol may pat you down (probably hundred times less likely than TSA, though.)

Flying is a hassle except for smaller regional airports. The bigger ones make you feel like cattle when you're going through TSA.
I doubt we'll see that going away any time soon.

The TSA only does pat-downs if you're wearing loose-fitting or baggy clothing that noticeably hides your body shape. That's partly why they ask you to take off hats, jackets, hoodies, scarves, etc. when going through security- its so they don't have to stop and take the time to do a pat-down. I've been patted down a couple of times while going through security, but that was mostly because I was wearing baggy jeans and baggy hoodie at the time. I wore better-fitting clothes the next time around, and they din't ask me to step out of line for a pat-down. If you want to ensure minimal contact with TSA agents, wear clothes that fit you properly (pants that either don't require a belt, or just take off the belt before going through security) and take everything out of your pockets and put it on the conveyor to go through the scanner; wallet, phone, camera, purse, music player, loose change, receipts, pens, etc.

But even if I wear tight clothes, I've heard they "randomly select" the youngest, prettiest girls.

I think the women TSA agents would notice that and file a complaint.
My daughter flies all the time and she is beautiful,she has only been patted down once.
And she regularly goes overseas.
What you heard is BS.
They pat down kids and grannies.Yeah,hot 80 eighty year old women.That's really gets the TSA boys drooling.

I've never seen them single out any specific demographic to search; it all depends on what you're wearing and how you're acting. I've seen old men get patted down as often as young mothers and even older children. They're taught to double check people who wear baggy clothes and/or people who appear overtly hesitant, secretive, or otherwise distressed or seeming out of the ordinary or out of place. There's also a rule that officers can only pat down people of their same sex, so as to prevent the passenger from being able to leverage a sexual harassment or sexual assault claim against an officer of the opposite sex who patted them down.

Basically, your best preparation is to wear proper clothing, and try to relax and just go with the flow. You get nervous, and that makes the officer uncomfortable; more likely to make a mistake or be more zealous with their security measures. If you're feeling nervous about it, try watching what other people are doing ahead of you as they go through security, and what the officers are doing, too. Getting an idea of how they react to the people and the motions they go through when checking them with a wand or with a pat-down (if it comes to that) can help lessen any nervousness you might have about whether you'll clear security without a hitch.

I've noticed that confidently and cheerfully greeting the agent that checks IDs usually diffuses a lot of the tension that comes with that check. Same thing works with the people at the scanners, too, although most agents are too preoccupied to respond in kind. Usually, just brief eye contact and a confident nod of acknowledgement will work to diffuse a lot of tension there, too, when you go through the gate.

Perhaps you might want to find a second set of advice from a person or support group that has experience in working with victims of sex crimes? Hopefully one of these days the TSA will get overturned in court...or overthrown along with a lot of other abuses of power.

It's only flying out of the country, right? It's just, I'm flying over there in June for 8 weeks...

Tight clothes. Got it. Must turn emo for the trip. Or dress like I'm in an 80's rock band.

Or maybe wear a Burqa? I don't think they'll dare to pat me down if I've got one of those on...

They'll probably take you into a private room and have a female take your niqab or whatever it is off. Probably not a good idea to be wearing one of those, because when you're discovered I suspect you'll be interrogated for a long time.

This is one of the reasons why I won't fly. I don't want them to touch me. It would upset me. I don't like being touched, especially in intimate areas.

I haven't flown since before 911.