Is that a tampon string, or is it a fuse?

If you are a woman of childbearing age, or if you know a woman of childbearing age, you need to read this.

A menstruating woman went through one of those new backscatter porno scan devices at airline security, and her menstrual pad showed up on the scan. As a consequence, she was detained and subjected to an invasive, traumatizing groin search by TSA staff. (h/t Legal Insurrection)

If you are a woman of childbearing age and you are not pregnant, there's roughly a one in six chance you will be using a feminine hygiene product when you pass through airline security. How do you feel about the possibility of being required to engage in a deeply personal unveiling before TSA staff?

When the TSA starts taking body cavity bombs seriously, are menstruating women going to be required to prove that the string is from a tampon and not a fuse?

The Thanksgiving Boycott may have fizzled, but harassing, humiliating, and traumatizing menstruating women may be TSA's last stand. Being subjected to a groin search by someone other than our gynecologist is traumatizing enough under ordinary circumstances, but when we are receiving our Monthly Gift, we are emotional, cranky, and perhaps a little quicker to anger.

And do you know what happened that last time a bunch of women became angry?

After Rick Santelli planted the seed, they gave birth to the Tea Party.

The humiliation experienced by law-abiding travelers passing through airline security will only escalate. As long as everyone is a potential terrorist, menstrual pads and tampons will raise alarm during the screening process and menstruating women will be subjected to humiliating searches. The next frontier will be elderly passengers wearing incontinence products.

If the TSA continues closely screening everyone, they obviously can't exempt odd packaging in or around passengers' genitalia, but there is no way that American womanhood is going to consent to these supremely invasive groin searches.

The TSA is going to have to change its search paradigm and figure out a way to determine which passengers require additional screening, and stop treating us all like criminals.