The White House and the Transportation Security Administration dodged a big bullet over the Thanksgiving holiday after preparing to tackle

an Internet-organized boycott against full-body scans in airports. Many passengers asserted their mistrust of the full-body scans and gathered enough online support to alarm the federal government. They dubbed the protest “National Opt-Out Day” and scheduled it for November 24, 2010, the day before Thanksgiving and one of the busiest travel days of the year. If successful, it would have caused countless delays in major airports, including those in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. “Just one or two recalcitrant passengers at an airport is all it takes to cause huge delays,” said Paul Ruden, a spokesman for the American Society of Travel Agents, according to the Associated Press. Transportation Security Administration Chief John Pistole said that protesting the scans would only “tie up people who want to go home and see their loved ones.”

However, it turns out that this boycott was less developed than originally thought. Airport security was met with little opposition towards the full-body scans; it did not significantly hinder flight times or create multiple delays. But despite the failed protest, the TSA is now forced to acknowledge the concerns of many travelers. Passengers mainly claim that the use of full-body scans is an invasion of personal privacy and creates a virtually naked image of the scanned person. While in Lisbon, Portugal, President Obama asked TSA officials if there was a less intrusive way to ensure travel safety. “I understand people’s frustrations,” Obama said. “You have to constantly refine and measure whether what we’re doing is the only way to assure the American people’s safety.”

Although passengers are reasonable in their arguments, the TSA highlights certain advantages to having a full-body scan before flights. Primarily, this heightened safety measure makes travelers more safe before boarding flights; undesirable items would be detected using the body scan prior to departure. Full-body scans are also not located in all airports and only approximately 20 percent of all passengers are required to be scanned according to the Associated Press. The process takes no more than 10 seconds, but it is necessary to pat-down individuals who refuse the scan.

Those who do not submit to a body scan must undergo a pat-down by airport security, which includes searching areas around the chest and genital region. It is, therefore, no surprise that many passengers consider the pat-downs to be a little too close for comfort. “A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted Nov. 21 finds that 64 percent of those surveyed support the use of full-body scans while 32 percent say they invade privacy by producing X-ray images of the passenger’s naked body,” reports aol.com.

Yet the issue of pat-downs remains split according to the same study. 50 percent of the same surveyed disapproved of screeners touching private areas on a passenger’s body, while another 48 percent believed their procedures to be acceptable. In the case of Tom Sawyer, however, pat-downs are too extreme and embarrassing. Sawyer, a bladder cancer survivor, wears a bag to collect his urine; the contents of the bag spilled when Detroit airport security patted him down roughly. The 61-year old retired special education teacher told MSNBC.com, “I was absolutely humiliated. I couldn’t even speak.” In order to avoid the humiliation associated with pat-downs, it seems that passengers will be more likely to agree to a full-body scan.

However, some Americans are embracing this humiliation. A growing amount of passengers are arriving at airports wearing nothing but bikinis, Speedos, or racy lingerie under their coats writes a Daily Mail Reporter. This comes as an open protest against the new regulations imposed by the TSA. “I don’t want to do a body scan,” said a female LAX passenger wearing nothing but a black bikini, “and I’m hoping by wearing a bikini they will see everything they need to see and we can avoid a pat-down, as well.”