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    The 'hilarious' TSA note about a woman's vibrator

    By The Week's Editorial Staff | The Week – Tue, Oct 25, 2011

    After packing a sex toy in her luggage, a woman allegedly opens her suitcase to find a note from the TSA reading, "GET YOUR FREAK ON." Cue the jokes

    The TSA's full body scanners have prompted privacy and modesty concerns, but one woman alleges that the TSA violated her privacy in a far more overt way. Feminist blogger Jill Filipovic says that after flying from Newark to Dublin, she opened her suitcase to find a special note from the TSA. Scrawled across the agency's official search form was a message: "GET YOUR FREAK ON." (See a picture of the note here.) I "guess they discovered a 'personal item' in my bag," Filipovic tweeted. "Wow." The item in question was a small, inexpensive silver bullet vibrator from the sex toy chain Babeland, chosen because Filipovic thought it "wouldn't raise any flags at TSA." Now "I'm grossed out," says Filipovic, "but it's also hilarious." The TSA says it's investigating the incident. Meanwhile, bloggers are cracking wise. Here, a sampling:

    Conservative agenda?
    "Is self-pleasuring really considered 'freaky' by anyone's standards these days?" asks John Del Signore at Gothamist. "Or is Newark airport subcontracting out their security screening to Focus on the Family?"

    Mission accomplished
    "As part of its ongoing efforts to make air travel as uncomfortable as possible," says Dan Amira at New York, "the TSA is now, apparently, leaving behind little creepy notes about the personal items it finds in your checked luggage."

    Just saying
    "Given that 'groping' leaps to many people's minds the minute the TSA is mentioned," says Anna North at Jezebel, "it might behoove agents to exercise a little discretion when going through people's stuff."

    Touchy subject
    Is this "hilarious or horrifying?" asks Lauri Apple at Gawker. "I'm gonna go with 'horrifying lite' — if only because there's the chance that the agent(s) touched the 'item' without washing his/her/their hands, or wasn't paying attention to other potentially freaky things," like, say loaded guns. 

    The lesson
    "On your next business trip," says John Giuffo at Forbes, "you might want to leave your more private possessions at home — unless getting your luggage handled is how you 'get your freak on.'"

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