I don’t even know how to come at this story. I just cannot find any reason at all for such behavior on the TSA agent’s part. Alexandra (Aly) Raisman is an Olympic gymnast who was part of the dream team that represented the US in Rio this past summer. If you need a refresher on Aly’s athletic abilities, check this out. Not that her abilities make this story worse but they do make it a bit more absurd. Anyway Aly, who also competed on Dancing with the Stars, has been chilling out before deciding if she’ll take on a third Olympics. At an airport recently, a female TSA agent asked if she was a gymnast, saying she recognized her by her biceps. That’s when the male TSA agent across from them somehow decided that his input on the matter was welcomed. But instead of adding anything relevant, he took the opportunity to dismiss Aly and her gorgeous arms because he’s an idiot (allegedly). Well, Aly is a gymnast and a well-known one so she got on Twitter and called this jerk out with her side of the incident.
Lady at TSA: "Gymnast? I recognized u by ur biceps"
Man at TSA: "I don't see any muscles" & continues 2 stare at me
How rude & uncomfortable— Alexandra Raisman (@Aly_Raisman) May 24, 2017
I work very hard to be healthy & fit. The fact that a man thinks he judge my arms pisses me off I am so sick of this judgmental generation.
— Alexandra Raisman (@Aly_Raisman) May 24, 2017
If u are a man who can't compliment a girls 💪🏻 you are sexist. Get over yourself. Are u kidding me? It's 2017. When will this change?
— Alexandra Raisman (@Aly_Raisman) May 24, 2017
He was very rude. Staring at me shaking his head like it couldn't be me because I didn't look "strong enough" to him? Not cool.
— Alexandra Raisman (@Aly_Raisman) May 24, 2017
I don’t get it – why? Why would he feel compelled to say something nasty to a woman who is just trying to get on a flight. I don’t usually jump to a sexist conclusion, but this really does sound sexist to me, especially given the leering that continued post-comment. Clearly this wasn’t meant as a joke since there was no follow-up or smile or wink. A joke would still have been rude but at least it might have been a failed attempt at flirting. This frat boy is lucky Aly had a measure of self-control because those “non-muscled” arms could level him in a heartbeat. As I said, there is no excuse for this. It was unwarranted, mean and indicative of a smaller person. And I can’t help but think he felt he had the right to toss out this morsel of hate because the two people involved were women. So good for Aly for blasting it to social media. Gutless bullies hiding behind their “badges” need to be called out. Ultimately it doesn’t matter who Aly is or what she’s accomplished, this man’s comment is bad no matter to whom he delivers it. And yes, it is 2017 – when the hell is this going to end?
Photo credit: WENN Photos and Getty Images
Oh TSA boy, honey, negging stopped working as a strategy in 2008.
And it never worked with Olympian gymnasts.
Side note: I hate negging. Hate it. It was really popular for a moment when The Game and all the other PUA nonsense came out.
Yeah when I first saw her tweets I immediately thought to myself, “negging”. Does it work ever?
You get on with your muscular self Aly.
It worked on some of my friends, even after predicting the damn steps some Game following turd was doing.
Low self esteem is a dangerous thing for ladies.
@detritus OMG the exact same thing happened to one of my friends! The guy even told us beforehand that he had heard about a new pick up method. I just only sat there bewildered but she really went for it.
Because he’s an asshole? Some people suck. Welcome to Earth.
Right? People are horrible and say shitty things #newsflash
I get that she was uncomfortable, but now that we have social media people get so obsessed with all of this shit and get so worked up by it. Of course he shouldn’t have said anything, but will anything be gained by her focusing on it and people being obsessed with it? Maybe its the first time someone said anything negative to her, and if so then good for her. But to restate my first point – people are assholes. If you are going to be around a lot of people someone will eventually say shitty things, and you can decide what to do with that. Focusing on the negative will only make you feel shitty.
Actually, something could be gained from it in that men could learn to stop saying sexist stuff to women. We didn’t make progress by “not complaining.”
Yes MelBelle!
Thank Melbelle. Standing back and taking that kind of **** while saying nothing never got any woman anywhere…fight on girl.
The TSA, including the female agent, should never make comments on a person’s body. It’s bad enough that you know they can basically see you naked, you don’t want to draw more attention to that loss of privacy. Aly’s reaction was odd to me though. She wanted him to compliment her? How about no one saying anything, period.
The reaction was weird to me too. I just thought, “so?”
This to me is similar to saying, “oh I didn’t notice you had a jacket.” “I didn’t notice you had green eyes ” “I didn’t notice your biceps.” Maybe it was the tone? That’s all I can think. Maybe you had to be there. This doesn’t strike me as body shaming at all. He just didn’t notice.
I walked through once and the (male, obviously) agent goes, “nice.”
He wasn’t loud and it was a really little thing, but it was so unprofessional and rude. I was probably 17 and traveled a lot at that time and it really shook me up.
I think she was paraphrasing “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” If you’re going to chime in to a conversation between two women regarding one’s body, it better be complimentary and relevant to their conversation, or you better shut the hell up. He could have contributed to a discussion of her athleticism without being rude or creepy. Instead, he chose to be a dick.
It isn’t alleged that he is an idiot…he clearly doesn’t know what being physically fit means or looks like, or that strength varies from person to person.
Many TSA agents I’ve come across are a bit socially awkward. He could have been a jerk or could have just been trying joke to be part of the conversation along with his coworker and it came across wrong.
exactly. He could be socially awkward or have a personality disorder and think this is a totally normal thing to say. Or he could have been an asshole. Hard to know since we weren’t there.
I was thinking that maybe the other TSA agent was being rude at the girl for recognizing her being an athlete due to her biceps… He tried to be nicer and didn’t come across that way.
Based on how she described the conversation, I didn’t like the first TSA comment either… It didn’t seem like a compliment. But I guess is about context and we don’t know the tone of voice they used and she does.
Another TSA asshole? Shocking!
Side note: Aly’s skin always looks AMAZING!!
It’s been my mood because I’ve been listening to My Favorite Murder and The Read podcasts, but i would have asked in all honesty ESPECIALLY after no wink or joke vibe, “who was talking to you?!” And walked away. However they are trained to be professional and curtious, I still think some attitude is appropriate in these circumstances.
I don’t disagree except that smarting off to a TSA agent, especially one who’s already being a surly creep, is a good way to end up missing your flight.
I think there are enough people that criticize muscles on women (even the comments here in the post about Pippa Middleton’s wedding, people commented about her too muscular arms), that I can almost see the male TSA agent thinking he was correcting the female TSA agent’s insult … But even if that were the case, that wouldn’t be the way to do it.
And, of course, I wasn’t there, Aly Raisman was, so I accept her assessment of the situation.
This is exactly what I was thinking
It’s called “negging,” and they do it as a power play. Women are raised to think their looks are their greatest value, so they assume a mild insult will throw us off base and make us vulnerable. I had a guy drag me away from my friends at a bar to dance (to clarify, I let him), then proceeded to insult my hair. I just stared at him a moment and walked away. Just bizarre.
Aly fell for it sadly… He got to her
Yeah, he kind of did. I don’t blame her for calling out the lack of professionalism, but otherwise girl, tell him to f*ck off. But then, microaggressions work because they are so subtle yet still manage to get under you skin.
I don’t really think that was an insult or sexist. Obviously I wasn’t there and maybe I would’ve evaluated it differently if I were and saw everything, but honestly looking at the pictures provided here, her arms don’t look that muscular? Especially if she was wearing something long sleeved? She looks fit, for sure, but not bulky.
But that’s concerning the statement itself. I side eye the fact that he even felt the need to comment
Huh I assumed this was going to be another “Your muscles are too big and that’s unflattering for a woman” comments so i was surprised to hear it was the opposite.
Sounds like dude was just insecure about the size of his own arms so had to put her down. Man people are weird.
“Huh, I don’t see any man here” is the only good response.
On a side note, she is stunning. That’s all.
she really is! I thought she was an actress from the photo and was surprised she’s an athlete
I’m just astounded that we think this is a proper way to live. Every one of us has flaws and all sorts of fabulousness, it’s horrible to live with our own self judgements…but to think it’s okay to put others under the microscope…especially someone like her who has achieved what many of us will never be able to…disgusting. The guy is a jerk. She’s an Olympian. Case closed. She’s fabulous.
Blasting it online makes her sound insecure. Who cares if he said that, brush it off and move on.
Men are weird like that. I once dated a guy for about a second. He asked what my average commission check was (I’m a real estate agent). Impossible question to answer, since it varies, but I gave him a ballpark and he said, “Oh, is that all?” Whatever dude. She needs to just ignore it and move on. Just roll your eyes.