WEBVTT 00:00:10.092 --> 00:00:13.064 I'm Gina, and I've lost 23 debit cards. 00:00:13.914 --> 00:00:16.872 I don't mean to, I'm just an easily distracted person. 00:00:16.872 --> 00:00:19.442 I've been known to show up to events on the wrong date, 00:00:19.442 --> 00:00:21.622 I always miss my Tube stop, 00:00:21.622 --> 00:00:24.191 and I cannot for the life of me wake up in the morning 00:00:24.191 --> 00:00:26.251 without feeling personally attacked. 00:00:26.769 --> 00:00:31.656 I'm also young, I'm female, I'm working class, 00:00:31.656 --> 00:00:35.885 and I'm not particularly academic - I kind of was average in school. 00:00:35.885 --> 00:00:38.216 And I think these are all some of the reasons why 00:00:38.216 --> 00:00:41.817 I probably never felt like I could really 'make a difference' growing up. 00:00:42.207 --> 00:00:43.232 But it turns out, 00:00:43.232 --> 00:00:45.525 with long-term things, I'm actually pretty good, 00:00:45.525 --> 00:00:47.199 with big ideas. 00:00:47.199 --> 00:00:49.339 I might be the person who lost 23 debit cards, 00:00:49.339 --> 00:00:51.283 but I'm also a law changer. 00:00:51.283 --> 00:00:54.999 When I was 25, I founded and ran the national media and political campaign 00:00:54.999 --> 00:00:57.645 to make upskirting illegal. 00:00:58.183 --> 00:00:59.156 Thank you. 00:00:59.156 --> 00:01:02.002 (Applause) (Cheers) 00:01:04.437 --> 00:01:06.195 You may have heard that story by now, 00:01:06.195 --> 00:01:08.815 but if you have, it will have been in clickbaity titles 00:01:08.815 --> 00:01:11.238 like 'I fought the law and won', that kind of thing. 00:01:11.238 --> 00:01:12.246 The reality of it is, 00:01:12.246 --> 00:01:15.731 it is actually the most difficult and uncomfortable period of my life. 00:01:15.731 --> 00:01:19.255 And I would like to take this opportunity to share that story with you now, 00:01:19.255 --> 00:01:21.214 as it actually happened, 00:01:21.214 --> 00:01:23.738 without the fierce-feminist shiny wrapping of it, 00:01:23.738 --> 00:01:26.698 but with some of the biggest lessons we can learn along the way 00:01:26.698 --> 00:01:27.864 and for the last time. 00:01:28.743 --> 00:01:33.016 In July 2017, I was at a festival called British Summer Time in Hyde Park. 00:01:33.304 --> 00:01:35.593 Me and my sister were in a crowd of 60,000 people 00:01:35.593 --> 00:01:37.928 waiting for The Killers to take the stage, 00:01:37.928 --> 00:01:40.291 when a group of guys started hitting on us. 00:01:40.858 --> 00:01:43.045 One of the guys was making loads of gross jokes 00:01:43.045 --> 00:01:45.678 and generally being really weird and harassing us, 00:01:45.678 --> 00:01:49.088 and we asked him to leave us alone multiple times, but he wouldn't. 00:01:49.619 --> 00:01:52.979 Five minutes later, I felt them all laughing at me. 00:01:53.329 --> 00:01:55.381 One of the guys was standing in front of me, 00:01:55.381 --> 00:01:57.433 so I peered around to see what he was doing. 00:01:57.433 --> 00:01:58.448 He was on his phone, 00:01:58.448 --> 00:02:01.763 and he'd been sent a really well-taken photograph of someone's crotch 00:02:01.763 --> 00:02:03.194 that was taken up their skirt. 00:02:03.194 --> 00:02:05.244 I knew it was me straight away. 00:02:05.775 --> 00:02:07.788 I grabbed the phone, and I started crying, 00:02:07.788 --> 00:02:11.508 and I held it up and was kind of yelling about what he'd done. 00:02:11.508 --> 00:02:14.314 And then a couple of people in the crowd helped me get away, 00:02:14.314 --> 00:02:16.515 and I ran through that crowd holding his phone, 00:02:16.515 --> 00:02:18.938 with him chasing me, which was literally terrifying. 00:02:18.938 --> 00:02:22.979 I managed to get a security guard, who protected me and called the police. 00:02:23.709 --> 00:02:27.062 When the police came, they separated me and the guy, 00:02:27.539 --> 00:02:29.698 and they said this to me, 00:02:29.698 --> 00:02:32.498 'You should be able to go to a festival at 30 degrees, 00:02:32.498 --> 00:02:35.095 wear a skirt, and this not happen to you.' 00:02:35.465 --> 00:02:38.043 But they also said, 'We've had a look at the photo. 00:02:38.043 --> 00:02:41.369 It shows more than you'd want it to show, but it's not a graphic image. 00:02:42.119 --> 00:02:45.455 If you'd chosen not to wear knickers, we could do something about this. 00:02:45.455 --> 00:02:47.765 But you did, so you won't hear much from us.' 00:02:48.826 --> 00:02:51.775 They told the guy to delete the photo, so my evidence was gone, 00:02:51.775 --> 00:02:54.247 and then they told us to enjoy the rest of our night. 00:02:54.247 --> 00:02:56.402 And I tried to, but I felt humiliated and sad, 00:02:56.402 --> 00:02:59.592 and I knew the guys were probably just carrying on with their night, 00:02:59.592 --> 00:03:00.787 having a great time. 00:03:02.933 --> 00:03:05.889 I went home, and a few days later I got a call from the police, 00:03:05.889 --> 00:03:08.165 and they told me my case was dropped. 00:03:08.165 --> 00:03:10.782 And I swear to God, when I put that phone down, 00:03:10.782 --> 00:03:13.172 something inside me sort of snapped. 00:03:13.562 --> 00:03:16.936 I've been dealing with sexual harassment for as long as I can remember, 00:03:16.936 --> 00:03:19.719 and I'd been brushing it off, and I was so over it. 00:03:19.719 --> 00:03:22.973 I couldn't believe that there wasn't a law covering this in some way. 00:03:22.973 --> 00:03:24.927 So I started to try to look into it. 00:03:24.927 --> 00:03:28.077 Everything I read was written by politicians and law-makers, 00:03:28.077 --> 00:03:30.044 academic people who spoke with jargon, 00:03:30.044 --> 00:03:31.472 they don't speak like me. 00:03:31.472 --> 00:03:34.163 I didn't really understand what they were fully saying. 00:03:34.163 --> 00:03:35.172 So I looked into law, 00:03:35.172 --> 00:03:38.444 and I thought I'd found that upskirting was not a sexual offence, 00:03:38.444 --> 00:03:41.443 but I thought I must have got it wrong because I'm not academic. 00:03:41.443 --> 00:03:44.974 So I asked a friend of mine who was a law student to look into it for me. 00:03:44.974 --> 00:03:46.386 And she said, 'You're right.' 00:03:46.386 --> 00:03:47.935 I had found that upskirting, 00:03:47.935 --> 00:03:51.584 the act of taking non-consensual photos or video up someone's clothing, 00:03:51.584 --> 00:03:53.737 was not a sexual offence in England and Wales, 00:03:53.737 --> 00:03:56.090 but it had been in Scotland for 10 years. 00:03:57.300 --> 00:04:00.333 We ask a lot from victims of sexual violence. 00:04:00.333 --> 00:04:01.354 We question them, 00:04:01.354 --> 00:04:04.494 we hold them to a higher standard sometimes than we do perpetrators 00:04:04.494 --> 00:04:06.073 in the moments after an incident. 00:04:06.073 --> 00:04:08.145 But I had done everything asked of me. 00:04:08.145 --> 00:04:12.069 I'd got witnesses, I'd kicked up a fuss, I had a photo, the phone. 00:04:12.069 --> 00:04:15.862 I even handed the guy into the law, and apparently it couldn't help me. 00:04:16.386 --> 00:04:18.796 And this is where we learn our first lesson: 00:04:18.796 --> 00:04:22.312 Women and marginalized genders who often deal with sexual violence 00:04:22.312 --> 00:04:23.317 shut their mouths 00:04:23.317 --> 00:04:26.115 because we make it harder for them when they're open. 00:04:26.634 --> 00:04:27.687 We have to stop acting 00:04:27.687 --> 00:04:30.900 like they're navigating some simple and perfect system. 00:04:30.900 --> 00:04:31.921 They're not. 00:04:31.921 --> 00:04:35.220 They're navigating one that's working against them a lot of the time. 00:04:36.330 --> 00:04:39.634 You see, when sexual harassment happens, there are one of two options. 00:04:39.634 --> 00:04:42.051 Number one, you brush it off, you shut your mouth. 00:04:42.051 --> 00:04:43.444 It happens, it is what it is. 00:04:43.444 --> 00:04:47.035 Number two, you do something about it, literally anything. 00:04:47.035 --> 00:04:49.871 Because it's not funny, it's not a joke, it's humiliating, 00:04:49.871 --> 00:04:52.007 and someone should do something about it. 00:04:52.509 --> 00:04:56.684 I can tell you right now that I'm good at number one. 00:04:56.684 --> 00:04:59.220 Women and marginalized genders are good at number one. 00:04:59.220 --> 00:05:01.992 We've been doing number one for as long as we can remember, 00:05:01.992 --> 00:05:04.568 and we are really, really bored of number one. 00:05:05.384 --> 00:05:07.907 Number one, I think, has affected me more than I know. 00:05:07.907 --> 00:05:08.961 Because of number one, 00:05:08.961 --> 00:05:10.965 when I watch news stories about this stuff, 00:05:10.965 --> 00:05:13.155 I start crying out of nowhere. 00:05:13.155 --> 00:05:15.691 When someone tells me a story about sexual harassment, 00:05:15.691 --> 00:05:18.972 it somehow partly feels like it's mine because of number one. 00:05:18.972 --> 00:05:20.215 And because of number one, 00:05:20.215 --> 00:05:24.144 I have struggled to articulate this problem for such a long time. 00:05:24.144 --> 00:05:27.762 Because I'd shut my mouth about it, and I didn't have the language. 00:05:28.401 --> 00:05:33.760 I'm frustrated that year after year, number one seems like our best option. 00:05:37.980 --> 00:05:39.705 But what about number two? 00:05:40.045 --> 00:05:43.471 OK, well, number two isn't something that people like me do really. 00:05:43.471 --> 00:05:47.576 Number two is for brave people, literally amazing people, 00:05:47.576 --> 00:05:50.548 people who are in power, people who didn't scrape by in school, 00:05:50.548 --> 00:05:52.548 people who have one debit card, I'd say. 00:05:53.395 --> 00:05:56.492 People who wrote those documents I struggled to read. 00:05:56.492 --> 00:05:59.112 But you see, I couldn't forget it, the upskirting thing, 00:05:59.112 --> 00:06:02.115 because for me it felt somehow possible to forget, for instance, 00:06:02.115 --> 00:06:04.929 the hand that had been on my bum on the Tube a year earlier, 00:06:04.929 --> 00:06:06.791 because that hand was no longer there - 00:06:06.791 --> 00:06:08.645 not easy, but possible. 00:06:08.932 --> 00:06:12.546 But I couldn't forget the upskirting thing because they still had the photos. 00:06:12.546 --> 00:06:14.405 They probably still do now. 00:06:15.084 --> 00:06:19.535 It felt impossible for me to forget, I think, because they did straight away. 00:06:19.535 --> 00:06:22.339 I don't think they even thought they'd done that much wrong. 00:06:22.339 --> 00:06:23.879 And therein lies our problem. 00:06:24.739 --> 00:06:26.545 A few days later, while I was at work, 00:06:26.545 --> 00:06:29.119 I put up this photo of me and my sister at the festival 00:06:29.119 --> 00:06:31.402 that happened to have the guys in the background. 00:06:31.402 --> 00:06:34.215 I thought, 'The law can't help me, the police can't help me, 00:06:34.215 --> 00:06:35.555 but maybe social media can.' 00:06:35.555 --> 00:06:38.045 And I asked people to share it and identify the guys. 00:06:38.045 --> 00:06:39.951 And then Facebook got in contact with me 00:06:39.951 --> 00:06:42.501 and told me I'd violated their community guidelines. 00:06:42.501 --> 00:06:47.295 Apparently, me putting this photo up constituted harassment against the guys, 00:06:47.555 --> 00:06:50.552 but them taking photos up the skirt and sharing them, no. 00:06:51.235 --> 00:06:54.581 I was incandescent with rage at this point. 00:06:54.581 --> 00:06:57.719 Every single safety net that was meant to have caught me hadn't, 00:06:57.719 --> 00:07:00.289 and the one thing I worked in and had done for years 00:07:00.289 --> 00:07:03.436 that was about democracy, community and human connection - 00:07:03.436 --> 00:07:04.448 social media - 00:07:04.448 --> 00:07:06.233 had also rejected me. 00:07:06.233 --> 00:07:09.385 You remember what I said about a system that's working against you? 00:07:09.385 --> 00:07:12.093 Everything at this point is forcing me back to number one, 00:07:12.093 --> 00:07:14.750 to brush it off, to forget about it, 'it is what it is'. 00:07:15.893 --> 00:07:17.631 I think when Facebook censored me, 00:07:17.631 --> 00:07:21.270 I actually just got angry enough that number one stopped being an option. 00:07:21.270 --> 00:07:23.804 And I'm not really embarrassed about the anger either 00:07:23.804 --> 00:07:25.376 because here's our second lesson: 00:07:25.376 --> 00:07:28.753 Anger is a very normal response to having your human rights compromised. 00:07:28.753 --> 00:07:30.270 That's important to say. 00:07:30.270 --> 00:07:32.768 We have to stop using it to delegitimise people, 00:07:32.768 --> 00:07:35.119 with 'angry feminist' or 'angry Black woman', 00:07:35.119 --> 00:07:36.663 all of these stereotypes. 00:07:36.663 --> 00:07:38.905 People are allowed to be angry about this stuff. 00:07:38.905 --> 00:07:40.980 And we have to hold space for them there. 00:07:40.980 --> 00:07:43.149 We have to realise it's not about us. 00:07:44.019 --> 00:07:47.266 I'd been put up with, I don't know, being shouted at from cars. 00:07:47.266 --> 00:07:48.762 I'd had my bum grabbed in bars. 00:07:48.762 --> 00:07:51.920 I had a stalking case for two years against a guy from school 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:53.380 that ended in nothing. 00:07:53.380 --> 00:07:55.847 When I was 19 and I worked at a rowdy student bar, 00:07:55.847 --> 00:07:58.260 a security guard, who was employed to protect me, 00:07:58.260 --> 00:08:01.664 felt my boobs 'to see if I was wearing a stab-proof vest'. 00:08:01.664 --> 00:08:04.906 I was angry that every woman I know has dealt with sexual harassment, 00:08:04.906 --> 00:08:08.756 and I was angry enough for the first time that number two became the only option - 00:08:08.756 --> 00:08:10.850 to do something about it, literally anything. 00:08:11.082 --> 00:08:12.997 So I started a social media campaign. 00:08:12.997 --> 00:08:14.391 I thought, 'OK, in work, 00:08:14.391 --> 00:08:17.833 if I can start a campaign to make people care about whisky, for instance, 00:08:17.833 --> 00:08:20.637 I can do it with something like this that actually matters.' 00:08:20.637 --> 00:08:22.791 I'd launched a petition, I wrote Facebook ads, 00:08:22.791 --> 00:08:24.162 I did editorials, 00:08:24.162 --> 00:08:26.068 and that's when I realised this: 00:08:26.864 --> 00:08:29.731 Social media is the single most important democratising tool 00:08:29.731 --> 00:08:32.133 we've ever had in social change. 00:08:32.133 --> 00:08:35.784 It can be used by anyone, at any time, for good. 00:08:35.784 --> 00:08:38.411 And traditional institutions really don't understand it, 00:08:38.411 --> 00:08:39.881 so you can use that. 00:08:40.652 --> 00:08:43.003 Almost as soon as I started asking the question, 00:08:43.003 --> 00:08:44.954 'Why is upskirting not a sexual offence?' 00:08:44.954 --> 00:08:46.932 people started answering. 00:08:47.331 --> 00:08:49.543 My DMs became full of stories. 00:08:49.543 --> 00:08:53.210 Young girls telling me about pictures being taken up their skirts on the Tube. 00:08:53.210 --> 00:08:56.303 Trans women telling me that people's obsession with their genitals 00:08:56.303 --> 00:08:58.961 had lead to them being victimised with upskirting. 00:08:58.961 --> 00:09:00.295 I had messages from teachers 00:09:00.295 --> 00:09:04.422 telling me young boys were coming up with plans 00:09:04.422 --> 00:09:06.380 to get pictures of the teachers together. 00:09:06.380 --> 00:09:07.810 And I got messages from Japan, 00:09:07.810 --> 00:09:10.574 where it is such a problem that they have redesigned phones 00:09:10.574 --> 00:09:12.767 so you can't turn off the camera shutter sound. 00:09:12.767 --> 00:09:15.105 So women are 'alerted' it's happening to them. 00:09:15.911 --> 00:09:18.378 Then I started getting messages from kids. 00:09:18.378 --> 00:09:21.201 And they were all coming from the same place, I recognised - 00:09:21.201 --> 00:09:22.621 a school in South London 00:09:22.621 --> 00:09:26.118 where the teacher had been upskirting the kids for months. 00:09:26.118 --> 00:09:28.973 They found thousands of photos, but they couldn't convict him 00:09:28.973 --> 00:09:33.231 because what he did didn't constitute a criminal offence under that current law. 00:09:34.039 --> 00:09:37.367 These kids who are messaging with me, pleading with me to do something, 00:09:37.367 --> 00:09:38.950 couldn't even vote. 00:09:38.950 --> 00:09:40.852 They have no democratic voice whatsoever. 00:09:40.852 --> 00:09:43.260 But social media gave them a direct line to me. 00:09:43.260 --> 00:09:44.944 And thank God it did 00:09:44.944 --> 00:09:48.321 because that was when I realised this is way bigger than me and my case. 00:09:48.321 --> 00:09:50.430 And instead of me standing up and being like, 00:09:50.430 --> 00:09:52.961 'Someone should do something' and pointing fingers, 00:09:53.417 --> 00:09:55.881 I thought, 'Alright, I'll try and do something. 00:09:56.206 --> 00:09:58.972 I don't know how to do it, but I'll try and change the law. 00:09:58.972 --> 00:10:02.608 I'll give it a go because maybe I'll make it easier for someone who can.' 00:10:03.368 --> 00:10:06.999 Honestly, I genuinely think I just needed somewhere to put my frustration. 00:10:06.999 --> 00:10:08.737 And that makes sense to me now. 00:10:08.737 --> 00:10:10.583 Because here's our next lesson: 00:10:10.909 --> 00:10:13.572 Action really is the cure for fear. 00:10:14.034 --> 00:10:17.115 With these things, fear and frustration really fester in you, 00:10:17.115 --> 00:10:21.115 but taking an action, even if it's small, can metabolise that back into power again. 00:10:21.115 --> 00:10:22.592 That's what it did for me. 00:10:23.741 --> 00:10:26.768 The first thing I did when I thought about changing the law 00:10:26.768 --> 00:10:31.624 was I googled, I literally wrote, 'How does one change the law?' 00:10:31.624 --> 00:10:33.552 and nothing came up. 00:10:33.552 --> 00:10:36.552 And I realised I was going to have to figure this out on my own. 00:10:36.552 --> 00:10:39.552 I also realised that social media and shouting about it on there 00:10:39.552 --> 00:10:42.498 was great for awareness, but it wasn't going to change the law. 00:10:42.498 --> 00:10:44.458 I had to get really clever and strategic. 00:10:44.458 --> 00:10:47.248 And to do that, I had to be really honest with myself. 00:10:47.248 --> 00:10:49.613 I'm good at campaigning, I can motivate people, 00:10:49.613 --> 00:10:52.439 and I understand this issue more than anyone, really, 00:10:52.439 --> 00:10:57.035 but I don't really understand politics, and I don't really understand the law. 00:10:57.035 --> 00:10:59.338 And those are two pretty big pieces of the puzzle 00:10:59.338 --> 00:11:01.918 if you're going to go into politics and change the law. 00:11:01.918 --> 00:11:03.652 So I needed to find someone who did, 00:11:03.652 --> 00:11:06.022 and I had to show them that I was really serious. 00:11:06.597 --> 00:11:08.459 So I went mainstream with the campaign. 00:11:08.459 --> 00:11:10.514 I packaged up the numbers from social media, 00:11:10.514 --> 00:11:13.078 and I started talking to TV producers and editors 00:11:13.078 --> 00:11:15.959 showing them there was conversation happening online. 00:11:15.959 --> 00:11:18.770 The first piece of media I did was Good Morning Britain. 00:11:18.770 --> 00:11:21.098 Piers Morgan was sadly not in that week, 00:11:21.098 --> 00:11:24.164 but I did get to sit opposite a female police officer, 00:11:24.164 --> 00:11:27.353 who told me that the police had 'more important things to deal with' 00:11:27.353 --> 00:11:28.926 and that I should wear trousers. 00:11:29.146 --> 00:11:31.112 At the height of those media appearances, 00:11:31.112 --> 00:11:34.012 I used all that publicity, and I started contacting law firms, 00:11:34.012 --> 00:11:38.315 showing them my proven theory on the law and all the public support I had. 00:11:38.850 --> 00:11:42.110 And then three days after I started that, I found Ryan Whelan, 00:11:42.456 --> 00:11:44.584 who was a 29-year-old lawyer. 00:11:44.584 --> 00:11:46.872 He was a human rights fanatic, 00:11:46.872 --> 00:11:51.314 he was unjaded by the industry, and he was a complete political nut. 00:11:51.314 --> 00:11:52.656 And we got to work together. 00:11:52.656 --> 00:11:55.514 We started creating a political strategy and a media strategy 00:11:55.514 --> 00:11:56.956 that complemented each other. 00:11:56.956 --> 00:11:58.388 We looked at the Scottish Law, 00:11:58.388 --> 00:12:01.013 and he created the new legislation we needed here. 00:12:01.013 --> 00:12:03.885 And then we went and got the best legal authorities in the UK 00:12:03.885 --> 00:12:06.149 to corroborate that and stand behind it. 00:12:06.149 --> 00:12:09.124 We did that because it meant when we went into Parliament, 00:12:09.124 --> 00:12:11.278 we were making it as easy as possible for MPs. 00:12:11.278 --> 00:12:13.830 We were just giving them a solution, not a problem. 00:12:14.743 --> 00:12:16.770 We met with MPs from all parties. 00:12:16.770 --> 00:12:18.435 That was really important to us. 00:12:18.435 --> 00:12:22.426 And that's because this wasn't a Labour issue or a Conservative issue. 00:12:22.426 --> 00:12:24.057 It was a human issue. 00:12:24.607 --> 00:12:26.561 And that 's when I learnt this: 00:12:27.356 --> 00:12:29.915 Human rights aren't about party politics. 00:12:29.915 --> 00:12:32.484 Party politics is a game, I've seen it. 00:12:32.484 --> 00:12:34.482 Human rights are about values and morals. 00:12:34.482 --> 00:12:36.588 So instead of everything being left or right, 00:12:36.588 --> 00:12:38.712 upskirting being a 'lefty issue', 00:12:38.712 --> 00:12:41.304 let's start looking up and down more. 00:12:41.304 --> 00:12:44.394 Who is society harder on? Who is society easier for? 00:12:44.394 --> 00:12:46.990 If we start doing that, we'll start getting work done. 00:12:47.954 --> 00:12:49.726 After months of meetings, 00:12:49.726 --> 00:12:53.854 we'd kind of built an army of MPs in those four walls, 00:12:53.854 --> 00:12:57.277 and we tabled a private member's bill to change the law. 00:12:57.277 --> 00:12:59.808 A year of politics ensued. 00:13:00.179 --> 00:13:04.836 That bill was killed and objected to by an MP called Christopher Chope, 00:13:04.836 --> 00:13:08.928 who, when I asked him why, told me, and I quote, 'He hadn't read it.' 00:13:10.434 --> 00:13:13.332 He said he objected on principle, but that was disproved. 00:13:13.332 --> 00:13:16.164 If you ask me, he saw this as trivial - 00:13:16.164 --> 00:13:17.666 a lot of people do. 00:13:17.666 --> 00:13:21.243 And he also didn't like the young girl coming in and getting a bill through, 00:13:21.243 --> 00:13:22.716 when he's tabled 47 of his own. 00:13:22.716 --> 00:13:24.196 That's politics. 00:13:24.766 --> 00:13:26.632 There are good people in there, though. 00:13:26.632 --> 00:13:29.892 The next day, me and Ryan met with the Justice Minister, Lucy Frazer, 00:13:29.892 --> 00:13:33.642 and we tabled a government bill that couldn't be objected to by MPs. 00:13:33.909 --> 00:13:36.205 We saw that bill through for a year - 00:13:36.205 --> 00:13:38.640 a year that I was fraught with nerves 00:13:38.640 --> 00:13:41.611 that this thing we'd almost done might fall at the last hurdle. 00:13:41.611 --> 00:13:44.244 But thankfully, January 2019 came, 00:13:44.244 --> 00:13:46.230 and me, and my family, and Ryan 00:13:46.230 --> 00:13:48.544 squeezed in to the gallery at the House of Lords, 00:13:48.544 --> 00:13:51.518 and we watched them pass our law unamended, 00:13:51.518 --> 00:13:53.275 practically as we created it. 00:13:53.275 --> 00:13:54.902 And that's the kind of law you get 00:13:54.902 --> 00:13:57.829 when it's driven by someone who has lived the problem. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:57.829 --> 00:13:59.116 (Cheers) 00:13:59.116 --> 00:14:00.139 Thanks. 00:14:00.139 --> 00:14:02.679 (Applause) 00:14:09.114 --> 00:14:12.779 Then I went to the pub, and I drank my weight in red wine, 00:14:12.779 --> 00:14:13.866 and I cried a lot. 00:14:13.866 --> 00:14:16.607 And then I danced to '90s pop, and I ate pizza with my mum 00:14:16.607 --> 00:14:18.572 because that's survivors deserve. 00:14:19.312 --> 00:14:21.710 (Applause) 00:14:23.183 --> 00:14:25.483 In the eight months after we outlawed upskirting, 00:14:25.483 --> 00:14:28.882 there had been one report to police almost every single day. 00:14:29.356 --> 00:14:32.056 We prosecuted 10 men by Christmas. 00:14:32.056 --> 00:14:37.094 One was a convicted paedophile who got two years in prison. 00:14:37.094 --> 00:14:40.428 Another was a man who was seen filming under a 16-year-old girl's skirt 00:14:40.428 --> 00:14:41.441 at a supermarket, 00:14:41.441 --> 00:14:46.183 and when police arrested him, they found 250,000 indecent images of children. 00:14:46.183 --> 00:14:47.869 This law isn't catching upskirters. 00:14:47.869 --> 00:14:52.429 It's catching sexual offenders, predators, paedophiles. 00:14:52.429 --> 00:14:54.639 And that's because of this next lesson: 00:14:56.109 --> 00:14:58.724 All misogyny and sexual violence is connected. 00:14:58.724 --> 00:15:01.902 Therefore, all of it is the problem, none of it is trivial. 00:15:01.902 --> 00:15:03.615 We have to remember that. 00:15:04.924 --> 00:15:07.417 The coverage that followed the law change was lovely. 00:15:07.417 --> 00:15:09.139 It was really powerful and positive. 00:15:09.139 --> 00:15:11.138 And I needed that, we needed that, I think. 00:15:11.138 --> 00:15:13.908 It felt good to have someone who took on the establishment, 00:15:13.908 --> 00:15:15.263 who was normal and won. 00:15:15.263 --> 00:15:17.082 But I started to feel weird 00:15:17.762 --> 00:15:20.572 because the two years campaigning wasn't actually like that. 00:15:20.572 --> 00:15:22.751 This was what campaigning was like. 00:15:23.800 --> 00:15:25.114 And I will cry, but it's OK 00:15:25.114 --> 00:15:27.514 because not crying isn't about power anymore. 00:15:27.514 --> 00:15:29.367 You can still be powerful and cry. 00:15:31.186 --> 00:15:34.247 And I got online abuse, rape threats, slut-shaming for two years. 00:15:34.247 --> 00:15:35.658 I still get them now. 00:15:36.497 --> 00:15:37.833 And I want you to read these 00:15:37.833 --> 00:15:40.133 as if you're reading them about someone you love. 00:15:40.133 --> 00:15:41.263 Because - 00:15:42.567 --> 00:15:43.861 (Sniffs) 00:15:47.125 --> 00:15:49.744 We have to stop calling them trolls because they're not. 00:15:49.744 --> 00:15:52.833 They're the people who work in coffee shops that serve you coffee. 00:15:52.833 --> 00:15:54.985 They work in your offices, they're everywhere. 00:15:54.985 --> 00:15:58.533 They're people who are so angry about a woman standing up for herself 00:15:58.533 --> 00:16:00.344 that they will threaten her with rape. 00:16:00.344 --> 00:16:01.764 And there's a lot of them. 00:16:01.764 --> 00:16:04.538 And I know you don't want to hear this because we never do, 00:16:04.538 --> 00:16:05.590 but they're all guys. 00:16:05.590 --> 00:16:07.473 (Cries) 00:16:09.115 --> 00:16:12.302 No doubt when this video goes up on YouTube, I'll get more of them. 00:16:13.244 --> 00:16:17.642 And among the nice comments, the supportive ones - because there are - 00:16:17.642 --> 00:16:19.311 and the hard ones, 00:16:19.311 --> 00:16:21.896 there will be one phrase that comes up again and again. 00:16:21.896 --> 00:16:23.714 It's not the scariest I've dealt with, 00:16:23.714 --> 00:16:27.010 but it is the most effective at derailing this important conversation. 00:16:27.010 --> 00:16:29.280 It will say, 'Not all men.' 00:16:30.058 --> 00:16:31.975 And to that I'll say this, 00:16:32.385 --> 00:16:35.718 'No, not all men, but too many.' 00:16:36.801 --> 00:16:38.485 Too many men, for some reason, 00:16:38.485 --> 00:16:41.115 feel entitled to women and marginalized genders' bodies. 00:16:41.115 --> 00:16:44.482 Too many men, whether through action or inaction, 00:16:44.482 --> 00:16:46.900 are perpetuating a culture of sexism 00:16:46.900 --> 00:16:49.791 that breeds inequality and that leads to violence. 00:16:49.791 --> 00:16:52.091 And if you want to use the phrase 'Not all men', 00:16:52.091 --> 00:16:53.617 how about we use it like this? 00:16:54.033 --> 00:16:56.038 'Not all men are calling out their friends 00:16:56.038 --> 00:16:59.072 when he says something to a woman he would never say to a guy. 00:16:59.571 --> 00:17:01.551 Not all men are looking up these phrases, 00:17:01.551 --> 00:17:04.958 learning what rape culture really is, how misogyny really operates. 00:17:04.958 --> 00:17:07.956 And no, not all men are perpetrators, of course they're not. 00:17:07.956 --> 00:17:11.143 But all the ones who aren't should be solving this with us. 00:17:12.286 --> 00:17:14.870 Because maybe if they were, we'd be living in a society 00:17:14.870 --> 00:17:18.368 where when I talk to guys or male politicians about sexual violence, 00:17:18.368 --> 00:17:19.751 they want to solve it with me 00:17:19.751 --> 00:17:22.809 more than they want to prove that they're not the problem. 00:17:22.809 --> 00:17:25.639 Maybe if we were living in that world, 00:17:25.639 --> 00:17:28.498 when someone upskirts me and takes photos without my consent, 00:17:28.498 --> 00:17:30.018 I don't have to almost lose it, 00:17:30.018 --> 00:17:33.449 creating a law that should have already been there for me.' 00:17:35.721 --> 00:17:37.430 Because here's the thing. 00:17:37.888 --> 00:17:40.566 When good men do engage with this work, 00:17:40.566 --> 00:17:44.993 when they really want to solve this, and they meaningfully engage, it works. 00:17:45.495 --> 00:17:47.706 Without Ryan as my ally, 00:17:47.706 --> 00:17:51.339 demanding a seat for me in Parliament, amplifying my voice, listening to me - 00:17:51.339 --> 00:17:52.846 the law wouldn't have changed. 00:17:53.252 --> 00:17:55.444 And there are good men that I know and love 00:17:55.444 --> 00:17:58.439 reading the books on gender, feminism, racism. 00:17:58.439 --> 00:18:01.546 They're doing the work, they're going to the events and listening. 00:18:01.546 --> 00:18:04.449 They're not waiting for a woman to explain this stuff to them. 00:18:04.449 --> 00:18:06.423 But from where I stand, there's too few. 00:18:06.954 --> 00:18:08.904 And we need more of you. 00:18:10.015 --> 00:18:14.913 And that brings us onto our final and most important lesson: 00:18:16.789 --> 00:18:19.715 Communities that are oppressed should not be left to dismantle 00:18:19.715 --> 00:18:21.936 the thing that's been built against them. 00:18:22.449 --> 00:18:25.462 You have to listen to your privilege, learn about it and use it 00:18:25.462 --> 00:18:27.876 and assist them in that fight. 00:18:31.099 --> 00:18:34.253 Look, I know listening to this is heavy, I get it, I'm tired too. 00:18:34.253 --> 00:18:38.687 But I'm also positive, and I'm strong like you are. 00:18:38.687 --> 00:18:41.035 And I genuinely believe we can solve this. 00:18:41.035 --> 00:18:43.377 Every day in this work I get to see amazing people 00:18:43.377 --> 00:18:45.671 who are pushing to make the world a better place. 00:18:45.671 --> 00:18:46.731 I see it all the time. 00:18:46.731 --> 00:18:48.979 Hate and intolerance are very loud, they scream. 00:18:48.979 --> 00:18:51.806 But good people, compassionate people, are quiet and humble. 00:18:51.806 --> 00:18:53.375 They're getting on with the work. 00:18:53.375 --> 00:18:55.395 You might not hear them, but they're there. 00:18:55.395 --> 00:18:57.774 And yes, there may always be a level of inequality, 00:18:57.774 --> 00:19:00.463 but we can shorten those peaks and troughs if we want to. 00:19:00.463 --> 00:19:02.848 That's on me, that's on all of you. 00:19:03.476 --> 00:19:05.310 So when you leave this room tonight, 00:19:05.310 --> 00:19:07.419 have a think about where you hold privilege - 00:19:07.419 --> 00:19:08.561 it might be in your job, 00:19:08.561 --> 00:19:11.981 as a parent, as a teacher, or just in the colour of your skin - 00:19:11.981 --> 00:19:14.290 and start this work now. 00:19:14.290 --> 00:19:17.304 Stop laughing at the jokes, buy the book, go to the event, 00:19:17.304 --> 00:19:21.027 diversify your social feeds, ask the questions. 00:19:21.027 --> 00:19:23.420 Sympathy is soothing, but it doesn't go far enough. 00:19:23.420 --> 00:19:24.891 Action does. 00:19:25.422 --> 00:19:27.150 And listen, you'll get things wrong. 00:19:27.150 --> 00:19:29.788 We all do, I've had some clangers. 00:19:29.788 --> 00:19:32.171 But it's not about perfection, it's about progress, 00:19:32.171 --> 00:19:34.905 it's about doing it because it's the right thing to do. 00:19:35.660 --> 00:19:38.936 We are so done with waiting for society to 'change things' for us. 00:19:38.936 --> 00:19:40.821 We literally are society. 00:19:41.734 --> 00:19:42.760 And let's be honest, 00:19:42.760 --> 00:19:45.381 if someone who's lost 23 debit cards can change a law, 00:19:45.381 --> 00:19:47.391 then I feel like you can do something too. 00:19:47.391 --> 00:19:48.408 (Laughter) 00:19:48.408 --> 00:19:50.420 Thank you very much, I've been Gina Martin. 00:19:50.420 --> 00:19:53.250 (Applause) (Cheers)