“Where someone takes a picture under a person’s clothing without their permission” – this is the official description of the term “upskirting” given to the public by gov.uk, the British government’s official website.
It came to us thanks to Gina Martin, the woman who finally decided to use her voice and change the future for women throughout the UK and Wales. Martin spoke to the Ministry of Justice UK back in February 2019, and told her story on her experiences and traumas with upskirting:
I was at a festival in 2017 and two guys took photos up my skirt, of my crotch, without me knowing. And the police dropped my case and I basically was really shocked to find out that upskirting wasn’t a sexual offence in England and Wales although it had been in Scotland for almost 10 years. So I launched a campaign, a national campaign to try and make it a sexual offence in England and Wales. And the reason I did that was because… growing up as a woman you get a lot of unwanted attention and a lot of things happen that make you feel uncomfortable… and I think this was the last one that I wanted to deal with. And I decided that if someone was going to make a change, why would it not be me? If I was upset about it, why not try and change something and use my voice – as we’re all told to do so often. So, I started that campaign and it was a success over 18 months. And here we are now.
In the summer of 2017, Martin started to use her voice, creating a petition in order to change the law on upskirting and turn it into a sexual offence in the UK. The petition received a whopping 111,046 signatures, as well as Martin appearing on UK media channels such as BBC3 and Channel 4. Yet, it begs the question: why has it taken until 2019 for such a heinous and invasive act to be considered illegal?
Until the Upskirting Bill was in force on 12 April 2019, the UK and Wales followed outdated laws, which proved to be extremely troublesome when attempting to hold those “upskirters” (if you will) accountable for their actions, due to the fact that it was a centuries old offence. The offence was known as “outraging public decency”, which essentially implies that it is a criminal offence to act in a lewd, disgusting or obscene manner in public and creates public indecency. However, this raises many practical issues, such as the problem that all those involved with the act must be able to see the act happen – this might not always be the case with upskirting, as the victim may not even be aware that they are being upskirted. Not to mention, the act does not take into consideration the effect of the act on the victim, as it only mentions harm to the general public, rather than looking at the repercussions of the act on individuals.
The UK is currently in an unpredictable, messy and quite frankly, terrifying political state. With Boris Johnson’s recent (and may I add completely undecided by the British public) promotion to prime Minister, the current emotional state of the UK seems to be divided into two strong sides: those who believe in the Government and more surprisingly, Johnson himself, and those who don’t want a racist, misogynistic, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic Prime Minister. I think it is quite clear what side I choose to reside in.
Due to the unclear political future for the United Kingdom, I think its important for us to remember individuals like Gina Martin, as for me personally, it reminds me that my voice can make a difference, even when it feels as though it is lost in a sea of a million of other voices, all fighting for their own futures, thoughts and rights. Martin shows us all how important it is to use the power of freedom of speech, to quote her once more: “If I was upset about it, why not try and change something and use my voice – as we’re all told to do so often.” This proves more important than ever. Thank you Gina Martin for reminding us all that our voice can make a difference – whether that’s in a crowd full of other voices, or standing on our own, our voice vivid and loud, still, in its own right.
Photo: Wolf G