Much of what is happening is your fault. Sorry, that's the way I feel. I went out on a limb years ago fighting this bullsh1t, and got little but the sucking of teeth from my colleagues.
It grieves me to see the amount of stress and plain suffering...yes, suffering, that this madness is causing some crews, engineers and ATC workers.
Why do you let it happen?
I think that it's the quasi-military nature of the industry that has caused this situation to persist. A long history of taking orders. I have always been against militant unions, but this madness would never happen in a factory.
Professionalism is just a word...crews are not treated as professionals. You had your chance...and blew it. It's easy to see why. In the late 60s, crews were asked if they thought they should carry their ‘status' to the outside world. i.e. be called Captain instead of Mr. Etc. It got a resounding NO. One of my captains said. "I think it's a trade, not a profession." Okay, that was his vote, but the man that said pilots would one day be equal to carriage drivers, wasn't far wrong. Carriage drivers is a clue to how long ago that was said. (From the Log c 1968)
Some time ago I suggested that radical action would only hurt the airline and its investors, and that the main trust should be against the people that are making these bizarrely wrong policies.
Now I'm not sure.
An airline that lets its crews fly without fresh water and basic food should be prosecuted. It is counter to flight safety. Therefor, to take action that may hurt them is no longer out of bounds. They need to do far, far more to defeat this madness than they are doing. They pay huge amounts to the airports...surely they have some say it how things should be done.
I am totally convinced that much of what is happening is caused by these ‘security' staff members gaining some kind of perverse pleasure by making professionals jump through ever more ridiculous hoops. You may think that this is too far fetched, but I'm all too aware of the extremes of behavior some people will go to if their lives have not met their expectations. Human nature is consistently inconsistent.
If a professional aircrew member has to disrobe / de-shoe, fine, but then there should be a full account of the reasoning behind the search, in writing to the company involved. The norm should be pre-vetted clear passage with everything packed into their flight bags that God intended.