On my way out of Las Vegas back home, I was quite early for my flight, so I again opted out of the body scanning machine used by the TSA. I can’t remember the last time that I didn’t opt out.
Some people complain that when they opt out, they are harassed by TSA personnel but I can only give you my experience with this. I have only been treated with courtesy and professionalism. I never felt like I’ve been punished for choosing to opt out, for example, making you wait a long time before someone can manually pat you down. I believe two minutes has been the longest I’ve had to wait for a TSA dude to do the pat down.
The examination is also consistent across personnel and airports. They always do it in the virtually in the same order and in the same manner. I always know what to expect when they pat me down. It’s the same “back of the hand” brush across my “sensitive” areas, checking my feet, and the weirdly comfortable back “massage” they give me.
Some people get really offended by the nature of the exam but if the TSA intends to know if you’re smuggling or hiding something in your groin area, they’re gonna have to do something to figure that out, there’s no getting around that. Personally, I don’t think some TSA dude really wants to brush the back of his hand against my junk, so I don’t take any offense.
Like I’ve said before, I view it as a friendly and free pre-flight massage before you get on a plane.