Production Report 11b

Second verse, same as the first! (This is me writing during the middle of the night and trying to be cute while leading into a very structured and specific blog post that serves the same effect as the previous blog post and where such a post is tougher for me to lead into since the content is so rigid and there isn't major room for creativity or different answers than the next kid and things of that sort.)


OUTLINE ITEM

Body 1:

    Sexual harassment in bathrooms does occur frequently, and it’s not that trans people are going to commit harassment, but that allowing anyone to use either bathroom could increase the feasibility of a sex offender to get into a bathroom claiming a trans identity just to get to their victims.

ADAPTATION OF OUTLINE ITEM

Firstly, the argument against trans people using the bathrooms of the sex with which they identify is often interpreted incorrectly. It is not my intention to claim that transgender people who have no history as sex offenders are going to suddenly become perverts and sexually harass or assault anybody as a result of being allowed into the bathroom that matches their gender identity. In fact, this is actually the opposite of what happens frequently - because trans people are viewed under such a negative light by society, there is no shortage of documentation of poor treatment of trans people within public facilities (citation). It just would not be practical for anyone to make this claim, so it should be made clear that the purpose of this paper is not to accuse transgender people of being sexual predators.

The major cause for concern when it comes to the "bathroom bills" is the potential for deceit and the sexual assault that could come as a result. Sexual assault has already taken place proliferously in public facilities such as restrooms and locker rooms (citation). If this is the case, what will happen to the statistic if predators are given some sort of opening to enter such facilities with much less concern for their intent? Think how easy it could be for a documented sex offender to claim a transgender identity to enter the a bathroom of their choosing and victimize innocent people who are busy taking care of their own business.

Granted, it may take a little searching to find documentation of such a scenario that has occured in the past. This is how people counter the argument against allowing cis- and transgender individuals to share restrooms. This lack of evidence could easily be explained by the fact that laws that allow restroom use by gender identity exist in such low concentration throughout the nation. Of course you aren't going to frequently see the result of a problem before the problem exists. But if states begin enacting such laws, it would not be surprising if cases of facility-related sexual harassment started springing up. "Victimizers use any opening they can find," claims rape survivor Kaeley Triller in an emotional piece about bathroom bills. "There are countless deviant [people] in this world who will pretend to be transgender as a means of gaining access to the people they want to exploit." (http://thefederalist.com/2015/11/23/a-rape-survivor-speaks-out-about-transgender-bathrooms/, fix citation)

Take Ontario, Canada for example. A cisgender male named Christopher Hambrook, who had a long history of sexual violence beginnng with molesting a five-year-old girl, gained entrance two separate women's shelters by claiming to identify as a trans woman named Jessica. He then took his opportunity to sexually assault multiple women, ranging from watching a woman as she showered to inappropriately touching a sleeping woman. (https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/sexual-predator-jailed-after-claiming-to-be-transgender-in-order-to-assault, fix citation) The incident sparked a lot of discussion, including many opposers of inclusive-to-trans bathroom laws wagging their fingers and saying "I told you so." Just like in grade school, the actions of one person could bring consequences that affect eveyone. Abusers of priviledges have the ability to ruin something good for those who benefit from the priviledge. While it means so much to be inclusive and understanding of transgender people, expanding bathrooms to include those of transgender identities could bring potential true risk and harm to innocent individuals. And even though predators can still sneak into private areas, under no circumstances should we make it any easier for them by providing them a valid excuse for getting in.

AUTHOR RESPONSE TO AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

1. As far as form goes, I employed a credibly professional tone as well as in-text citations (to be edited later) to adhere to the genre conventions. I also just find it really simple to place argumentative, persuasive-essay-type content into written text, which means I made a good choice ditching my original video essay idea for the good ol' SCE. Things like my use of lengthy paragraphs and clear evidence to back claims are also typical and strong essay material.
2. The process of creating this content actually went extremely well, I think. It did take me a lot longer than I had expected it to take, since my little three-line bullet points expanded into four paragraphs of text. I hope this isn't shaping up my essay to be too long but this truly is the bulk of my argument so hopefully the remaining of my points won't take up quite as much space. It was also really easy for me to get the content on the page. I don't usually do too much planning or revisng. Mostly it all just happens at once and that was the case and I didn't have to take any breaks from this producton and that felt pretty good.