Aly Raisman: 'Sexist' TSA Agent Doubted My Muscles

Olympic gymnast describes 'rude and uncomfortable' interaction with male agent
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted May 25, 2017 3:52 PM CDT
Updated May 26, 2017 2:47 AM CDT
Aly Raisman Describes 'Sexist' TSA Encounter
Aly Raisman, an Olympic gold-medalist, says a TSA agent rudely stared at her and implied she wasn't muscular enough to be a gymnast.   (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Aly Raisman, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics, says she was the victim of some uncomfortable sexism at the hands of the TSA. The 22-year-old shared the story on her Twitter account Wednesday, the AP reports. It started when a female TSA worker told Raisman she recognized her by her biceps. At that point, a male TSA agent started staring at her and told her he didn't "see any muscles." He was “staring at me shaking his head like it couldn’t be me because I didn’t look ‘strong enough’ to him," Sports Illustrated quotes Raisman as tweeting.

Raisman says the situation was "rude and uncomfortable." She says it's sexist that a man was incapable of complimenting or acknowledging a woman's muscles. “The fact that a man thinks he [can] judge my arms pisses me off," Raisman tweets. "I am so sick of this judgmental generation." Sports Illustrated, which describes the TSA agent as body-shaming Raisman, reports the gymnast has talked in the past about being teased by boys in school because they thought her muscular arms were "weird and gross." According to Deadspin, it's generally wrong to comment on a stranger's body, but the TSA agent was specifically wrong "because Aly Raisman is ripped" and an "extremely built human." (There are some Olympic rules Raisman thinks should be changed.)

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