Today I had to get a private patdown by two TSA agents because my incontinence pad set off their screening devices
Out trans people have talked a lot about how the screening devices stigmatize trans and intersex people, when they work by comparing the body being examined to the “normal” male or “normal” female body. But there’s also something to be said about the way that that “normal” body is presumed able bodied and neurotypical. My ear defenders have to come off before I go through. People with mobility aids and prosthetics have to either leave their aids or be subjected to a full body pat down. When they ask “do you have any metal in your body?” They are asking about medical devices; the system is designed on the assumption that people lack metal implants or bone replacements. Anything that deviates from the cisgender, not intersex, and abled norm is seen as an aberration, and our bodies are treated as a threat and as public curiosities