Gina Martin is a British gender equality activist, facilitator, author and speaker. She is known for her case to make

upskirt Upskirting or upskirt photography is the practice of taking photographs or videos under a person's skirt or kilt, capturing an image or video of the crotch area, showing underwear such as panties, and sometimes genitalia. An "upskirt" is a photo ...

ing illegal in England and Wales, which resulted in the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019, as well as changing global

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

policy with model Nyome Nicholas-Williams. Martin also authored three books, ''Be the Change: A Toolkit for the Activist in You'', ''No Offence...but'' and ''To Hate and Love Men'' and rejected a nomination for an award of an

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 2020.

Early life

Martin grew up in

Northwich Northwich is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. It lies on the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane, east of Chester, south of Warrington and south of Ma ...

, Cheshire. She completed a year-long foundation course at Mid Cheshire College in 2010 before going on to graduate with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) in Creative Advertising from

Leeds College of Art Leeds Arts University is a specialist arts further and higher education institution, based in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a main campus opposite the University of Leeds. History It was founded in 1846 as the Leeds Sc ...

in 2013. Her older sister is stand-up comedian and actress Stevie Martin, whose credits include '' Starstruck'', '' The Mash Report'' and '' Taskmaster''.

Career and activism

In 2019, Martin and her lawyer Ryan Whelan (of Gibson Dunne and Crutcher L.L.P) were successful in reforming the Sexual Offences Act, 2003 by making upskirting an official sexual offence.

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

followed suit inspired by the English and Welsh campaign. In 2020 Martin worked pro-bono for model Nyome Nicholas-Williams to campaign against

's nudity policy after the platform was accused of censorship for deleting images of Nicholas-Williams from the site while retaining similar images of white women, resulting in an official change to their nudity policy on breast squeezing. In August 2020 they won their campaign and

apologised and amended the policy.

Upskirting campaign

In June 2017, Martin was attending the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park when she discovered that a man had taken a picture of her underwear from under her skirt. She took his phone to the police, who told her the act wasn't illegal and therefore they couldn't take any action. After posting about the incident on Facebook, her story went viral and an

online petition An online petition (or Internet petition, or e-petition) is a form of petition which is signed online, usually through a form on a website. Visitors to the online petition sign the petition by adding their details such as name and email address. T ...

was started to reopen her case. The petition received more than 100,000 signatures, and Martin began campaigning to change the law with pro-bono representation from associate lawyer Ryan Whelan of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Martin campaigned while working a full-time job, and received a large amount of online harassment, including hundreds of rape threats and death threats. In March 2018, along with Martin and Whelan, MP

Wera Hobhouse Wera Benedicta Hobhouse (' von Reden, 8 February 1960) is a British-German Liberal Democrats (UK), Liberal Democrat politician who has been the Member of Parliament (UK), Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath (UK Parliament constituency), Bath sinc ...

tabled a Private Members Bill to make upskirting a criminal offence. The bill was blocked on second reading by Conservative MP

Christopher Chope Sir Christopher Robert Chope (born 19 May 1947) is a British politician and former barrister who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Christchurch in Dorset since 1997. A member of the Conservative Party, he was first elected in ...

. In response, The Ministry of Justice backed the anti-upskirting campaign by introducing a Government bill that was eventually approved by the House of Lords in February 2019 and the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 came into force in April the same year.

Writing

Martin has written for

Grazia ''Grazia'' (; ; stylized in all caps) is a weekly women's magazine that originated in Italy with international editions printed in Albania, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, In ...

, The World Economic Forum,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, Glamour, and

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

, and Vogue and in June 2019 published a book on activism titled ''Be the Change: A Toolkit for the Activist in You''. In 2022 Martin published
No Offence... But
' with 10 other writers, advocates and activists, and in 2023 worked with independent publishe
The Pound Project
to release ''To Hate and Love Men'' a philosophical exploration of women's complex feelings towards men at large.

Personal life

Martin married her Australian partner Jordy in February 2023.

Bibliography

* ''Be The Change: A Toolkit for the Activist in You'' (2019) * ''"No Offence, But…": How to have difficult conversations for meaningful change'' (2023) * ''To Hate and Love Men'' (2024)

Awards

In 2019, Martin was included in the BBC's 100 Women list, and the ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

100 Next'' list as well as Stylist Remarkable Women Gamechanger Award and Disruptor of the Year at the Cosmopolitan Magazine Influencer Awards. Martin rejected an offer to be nominated for an

in 2020, citing concerns about the "violence and oppression" of the British Empire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Gina Living people Alumni of Leeds Arts University British women podcasters English expatriates in Australia English podcasters English women activists English women non-fiction writers People from Northwich Writers from Cheshire Year of birth missing (living people)