TSA Scolded Woman For ‘Inappropriate’ Hoodie — She Had Nothing On Underneath

We see conflict all the time over dress codes on planes. Airlines have vague rules about inappropriate attire, and that’s often left to the discretion of gate agents or flight attendants to figure out what that means.

A former Miss Universe and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model was asked to cover up in order to be allowed to fly American Airlines, when she wasn’t even wearing the most revealing clothes on the aircraft.

Southwest Airlines kicked a Playboy Playmate off one of its flights because of her attire. This from an airline whose flight attendants used to wear hot pants, its automated ticketing machines were called “Quickies” and more recently they plastered a model in a bikini on the side of one of their 737s.

Yet these same people who are judged to be dressed inappropriately by airlines pass through TSA without incident – wearing the same clothing – every day. In fact, often going through the TSA checkpoint they’re wearing less because they have to take it off.

So I was shocked to see a woman told by TSA she was not ‘dressed appropriately’. And it was because she was wearing… a hoodie?

@fruityswagmoney @Comfrt pls sponsor me i was in tears they were so rude bc i had a hoodie on. #fyp #tsa #airport ♬ just a girl – autumnaudios

Here’s the problem:

• Hoodies are ‘bulky items of clothing’ and TSA may require you to remove those.
  
• But this woman didn’t have a shirt on underneath her hoodie.
  
• So the solution is a pat down.

TSA doesn’t do much dess code enforcement. There are only a limited number of incidents we’ve seen over clothing at checkpoints. For instance,

• A JetBlue passenger was prevented from boarding at New York JFK in 2006 for refusing to remove a t-shirt that said “We Will Not Be Silent” in English and Arabic. The case that followed settled for $240,000.

• In 2010, a passenger removed his shirt, exposing the text of the fourth amendment written on his chest. He was detained and handcuffed by TSA. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit allowed a first amendment violation claim to proceed.

• Rapper Kamaiyah was told she couldn’t proceed through security in 2018 unless she allowed TSA screening of a head covering that alarmed. She refused, and was arrested. Another head covering dispute happened in 2016 when a Sikh comedian was forced to remove his turban for screening in San Francisco.

Generally, TSA allows head coverings but says they may trigger additional screening. They don’t police attire as such. They have far less latitude to do so as a government agency. That’s left to the airlines.

Here, the woman isn’t banned from wearing a hoodie – but TSA doesn’t like it when there’s nothing on underneath because it makes their job harder.