Activist Gina Martin on changing the law on upskirting, ‘boys will be boys’, and the impact of online abuse
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Channel 4 News
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2023
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gina Martin is best known as the driving force behind the Voyeurism Act, which made upskirting, or the taking of pictures under a person’s clothing without permission, a criminal offence in England and Wales, after she was assaulted at a music festival.
The gender equality activist is now working to teach people how to challenge problematic statements such as ‘boys will be boys’ and ‘not all men’, and have constructive conversations on social justice issues.
Today on Ways to Change the World, Gina Martin tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy about the lessons she has learnt since changing the law on upskirting, the importance of trans voices, the online abuse she has received and why the conversation around masculinity needs to change.
Produced by Silvia Maresca
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to ways to change the world. I'm Krishnan Giri Murphy and this is the |
| 0:05.6 | podcast in which we talk to extraordinary people about the big ideas and their lives and |
| 0:09.9 | the events that have helped shape them. I guess this week has changed the world or at |
| 0:14.5 | least England and Wales because Gina Martin was the driving force behind the voyeurism |
| 0:20.6 | act which made up-skirting the taking of pictures of a skirt, a specific criminal offence |
| 0:27.8 | and it happened after an incident that happened to her in 2017. That's what she's best known |
| 0:33.0 | for but now she is an activist and a writer and she has a new book out which is a series |
| 0:38.9 | of essays really with the help of some of her friends and colleagues called No Offence |
| 0:44.3 | but how to have difficult conversations for meaningful change. |
| 0:50.1 | Welcome and it's kind of funny because it's a book that feels written in exasperation |
| 0:57.4 | about talking to idiots. Can I put that on the book with your name? |
| 1:03.1 | Yeah I mean look it's like come from a need right? Like I started this project because |
| 1:08.3 | every event I went to people would come up and go how do you respond to this thing without |
| 1:12.3 | losing it? Like I can't articulate myself I'm just so frustrated and so it's like well |
| 1:16.7 | can I make something or you're forced to sit down with it slowly and like think about |
| 1:20.9 | where these things come from and how they impact culture and how they impact each other |
| 1:24.8 | when we have these conversations. So I guess yeah it has sort of come from exasperation. |
| 1:28.6 | And are you comfortable to say you are an activist? Yeah that's what you are. |
| 1:33.5 | I didn't for about six months I tried to stop calling myself that but I don't think it's |
| 1:36.5 | possible because I think it helps people understand what I do. |
| 1:39.3 | And you never set out to be one this wouldn't just happen to you. |
| 1:42.2 | Yeah I think a lot of people come to this work from personal experience right and then |
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