‘Becoming An Activist Was The Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done But I Will Do It For The Rest Of My Life’

‘I don’t have any political experience or law experience,’ says Gina Martin, 27, the activist who last month finally succeeded in her campaign to make upskirting a criminal offence, ‘it’s really scary to be in a very, very middle-class white male environment, not feeling like you belong’.

Gina didn’t see herself as someone who could change the law back in July 2017 when she became a victim of upskirting, yet a year and a half later, she is. And now, she’s on a mission to prove to all women they can be too. Her new book, ‘#BETHECHANGE: A Toolkit For Activism’ was made for ‘activists in training’ and promises to be a sensation upon its release in June this year. Not just because it explores her own experience changing the law, but because it inspires other women to, and it’s why we’ve named her one of our ‘10 women who’ve changed the conversation this year’ in honour of International Women’s Day.

Gina’s campaign started in July 2017 when a stranger took pictures up her skirt while she attended British Summertime Festival. When the police told her she couldn’t pursue a case against the man who as now in possession of a picture of her crotch because the image wasn’t ‘graphic’, she – as many women do in absence of a justice system that can actually protect them - turned to social media. She named and shamed the men, started a petition, and a few days later her post was viral on Twitter and Facebook.

‘For every supportive comment, there was an awful one,’ she wrote for Grazia at the time, ‘after four days, as if the whole situation couldn't get any worse, my Facebook post was reported and taken down for “harassment”. The irony is painful. The only tool I had left to support me told me that these men were more protected than I was.’

It was in that moment of absolute hopelessness, without a legal system to protect her and with social media silencing her, that she realised the problem went way beyond her own search for justice. ‘As soon as I started putting posts out about it I got loads of young girls messaging me that it had happened to,’ she told Grazia, ‘some of which were in school, they were like eight and nine, and then it was like “oh ok right, well then I have to change the law”’

With her personal outrage now a passion to protect women everywhere, Gina set out finding legal assistance for free, and began a campaign that she says were filled with ‘emotional roadblocks.’ Her lawyer, Ryan Whelan, who Gina credits as one of few real feminists amongst a sea of lawyers that contacted her on an ego trip, was one of her biggest support systems. Together, as one grassroots campaigner and one high-flying lawyer, she says they had a new format that worked so well they didn’t face very many logistical issues. However, the emotional turmoil was huge.

‘I had a full-time job the whole time, I was getting a lot of emotional abuse, rape threats and stuff – which I still get whenever the media increases,’ she says, but the hardest thing was continuing on when she felt so far out of place in such a white, male, middle-class environment. ‘Taking on something like that is such emotional labour,’ she continued, ‘alongside the rest of your life, that – and the online abuse - was probably the hardest thing.’

But the physical and emotional labour Gina and her supporters put into the campaign all became worth it when in January this year, the bill that had been officially backed by the government in July 2018, passed its third reading. ‘That was like, there’s no way out, it’s done now,’ she said, ‘Knowing that we’d done it and being with my family and stuff in the house – and having waited for that moment for so long, it was such an amazing feeling.’

And for someone like Gina, who seems to have the patience and selflessness of a Saint, her activism won’t end here. When I ask her if she’s going to take a break of continue with her activism she is extremely clear: ‘Oh yeah, this is me now,’ she says, ‘it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I didn’t sleep and it was so stressful but I will do it for the rest of my life.’

It’s her unique insight into successfully navigating change that gives her the knowledge to write her book, but it’s also forced her to learn a hard lesson, that real change means working within the system that was built against you. ‘So often as women and as activists want to push against power systems and force them to do something by pushing against them- which we should quite rightly,’ she says, ‘but also there’s a value to working within a system, and actually if you want to create meaningful change that works you have to do it within that system.’

Essentially, rather than attempting to tear down the entire patriarchy, as people with little to no real power we must endeavour to create smaller changes that – one would hope - will eventually dismantle the system. ‘Really complex problems, which inequality is, need really complex solutions,’ she continued, ‘and complex solutions come from putting one puzzle piece at a time properly, changing things properly and meaningfully one piece at a time because we’re never going to be able to solve it in one go.’

And it’s with the anger that outraged Gina in the first place that she’s able to see these smaller changes through until the end. ‘Anger is an incredible motivator,’ she said, ‘I’m bored of people saying that anger is a bad thing in this kind of work. We’re so used to, as women, being palatable and polite and doing what the men tell us to do basically when actually all of this started because I was just fucking angry about it and that’s a good thing. Negative emotions can be an amazing motivator.’

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When you think about all that Gina has achieved, borne of out such a supposedly negative emotion, it’s clear that actually anger is one of the biggest tools we have when fighting against inequality. That, and social media, of which Gina’s campaign could not have got its wings without. Another tool that people attack when used for justice, yet one of the few women have to truly find support.

‘People don’t like [social media justice] because it’s been a certain way for so long. And it’s been actively created this way so that women don’t have the kind of empowerment and the same rights as men,’ she said, ‘now there’s a real feeling that with #MeToo with Time’s Up - and with the work that’s been happening in the last two years - women have the tools more than they’ve ever had to have the conversations, to galvanize communities to create change in a way that they’ve never been able to do before.’

‘People worry about using social media and I’m just such a massive advocate of using it for positive,’ she continued, ‘It may feel like a negative if you don’t understand the plight of equality, but anything that is fighting for equality or to include people online is a good thing.’

Gina’s book is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.

Gina is one of our 10 Women Who’ve Changed The Conversation This Year. To mark International Women’s Day, Grazia and The Female Lead Have teamed up to celebrate the heroines who’ve made a difference to our everyday lives - even if you don’t know their name yet. We’ll be featuring a different amazing woman from the list every day online, and check out Grazia magazine on Tuesday 5th March for our list in full…