Ain’t no mountain high enough to keep airport security from bothering Diana Ross.
The singer and former lead of the Supremes has had it with the Transportation Security Administration. In a series of tweets on Sunday, Ross said her recent experience at the airport was disheartening. “OK so on one hand I’m treated like royalty in New Orleans and at the airport I was treated like shit,” she wrote.
TSA pre-flight screening is the worst part of flying, and that’s saying a lot considering the 2-ounce in-flight snacks, crying babies, and agonizing lack of legroom.
It’s worse than $7 croissants and airport bathroom stalls into which you can barely fit your luggage. No one wants to wait in line for half an hour just to unpack their carefully organized luggage, cringe if they’ve forgotten to wear socks, and let a stranger pat them down.
Even celebrities aren’t immune. Ross said TSA’s “over the top” screening made her want to cry. “I am feeling violated,” she continued in her Twitter rant. “I still feel [the agent’s] hands between my legs, front and back” while the agent explained she was just doing her job.
Ross clarified in later tweets that she appreciates what security does to keep travelers safe. In a statement obtained by People magazine, a TSA spokesperson responded to the incident: “Initial review of CCTV indicates that the officers involved with Ms. Ross’s screening correctly followed all protocols, however, TSA leadership will continue to investigate the matter further.”
“Following protocol” doesn’t preclude unwanted intimacy. Lots of travelers can recount uncomfortable experiences. One fed-up traveler went viral in 2010 for telling a TSA agent not to “touch my junk.” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer declared that phrase “the anthem of the modern man.”
Krauthammer wrote that “everyone knows that the entire apparatus of the security line is a national homage to political correctness. Nowhere do more people meekly acquiesce to more useless inconvenience and needless indignity for less purpose.”
In few realms is government overreach and waste more apparent than in the TSA lines at an American airport. Even celebrities recognize it, but that doesn’t mean it’s likely to change.
Even in 1999, Ross was briefly detained after she became furious at a security guard at a London airport. “This woman went all around my body and up and down my legs. I felt very uncomfortable. I wanted to complain, but no one listened to me,” Ross said. Ross actually responded by touching the female guard back, asking, “How would you feel in this situation?”
Clearly, not the best response. But travelers can often feel helpless at the whim of airport security.
As travelers such as Ross struggle to maintain a little dignity even with their shoes and belts off, they may at least rely on the modern refrain. Forget “Stop! In the Name of Love.” If Ross wants to do something about overzealous airport security guards, she can rely on another classic anthem: “Don’t touch my junk.”
