Former Love Island star Georgia Harrison, who changed the law for women’s rights, speaks out as the Mirror exclusively reveals TFL’s decision to install women-only tube carriages on the underground following a petition to protect women from harassment on the way of transportation.
While enduring a traumatic court case which saw her ex boyfriend Stephen Bear sentenced to 21 months in prison for voyeurism and disclosing sexual footage of her, Georgia Harrison has campaigned to increase the support for survivors of sexual abuse, in all forms.
And now, with the Mirror campaigning against Transport For London’s decision to not create female only carriages on the London Underground, we caught up with Georgia to discuss her thought on TFL’s decision. Here’s her story:
Many of my close female friends and I personally have had a number of negative experiences while using public transportation. You don’t want to say something or don’t know who did it because I’ve had times where I’ve been on busy carriages or people have grabbed or groped me.
I worked in the city a lot so I tended to find that during rush hour when it’s really compact things like that happen. And a lot of my friends have had those experiences as well. I picked one of my friends up from the train station, some time last year and she was crying because the whole way home a man had been brushing up against her and she knew it was on purpose. And there was nothing she could do about it and she was too scared to say anything. She was really, really upset and she was like ‘oh it’s so out of character for me, I feel I didn’t stand up for myself’ but you just don’t know what you’re going to do in that moment. The other day I was getting the train home late at night and I don’t often do it but it was just going to be quicker to get a train. It wasn’t like a sexual assault or anything but it was a guy that was sitting opposite me and he was really drunk and he was speaking to me really inappropriately. It was very clear I was pregnant and he was saying how it’s horrible having kids , it’s going to change my life negatively. The other people on the carriage could probably sense it was making me uncomfortable but didn’t want to say anything. And then he kept trying to grab my hand after, like trying to make up with me but he had really dirty hands and alcohol them. I’m pregnant and I’ve got a baby inside me, I didn’t really understand the animosity that was coming towards me because of the fact I was having a child. And that was a really recent experience for me , this was only a couple of weeks ago.
They practice it in Japan, Indonesia, India, Indonesia, and even Thailand. I’m surprised that London isn’t considering this because so many other nations are acknowledging that this is something that is needed. However, I can see how other people will be concerned about inclusion and how to make it safe for everyone. However, it shouldn’t be taken as a negative omen, as women are forced to segregate themselves. It is without a doubt not. If I’m a young girl of any age, or if I’m a woman returning home late at night and know that I’m going to be on my own, and I’m nervous, I don’t understand why I shouldn’t have the option to board a train, whether it’s for women only, then.
I’d absolutely like to see more surveillance. I don’t understand how that’s something we haven’t already introduced, so I don’t see why that’s a no-brainer. In a dream world, I’d assume there would be more police or security on the underground, allowing you to jump off immediately and seek assistance when necessary. There is no reason why people shouldn’t feel comfortable being filmed in that environment, which is why CCTV isn’t available on trains. In fact, there are many assaults occurring there, and people are now almost always filmed there. And it ought to be able to monitor trains without paying a premium.
I just believe that society needs to change in general in how we approach our misogynistic traits. Online hate, which is relatively new to society, is a major source of that hatred. And I’m a big proponent of how to educate people as they get older and in school. Actually, what they are seeing isn’t accurate. There is a better way to view women, understand them, and experience empathy for them. And in fact, it makes you more sympathetic to, appreciate, and understand a woman than it does to reject them.
I receive numerous messages from women. They will state that they have been abused and only want a contact. They’ll message me about image-based abuse, domestic abuse, and rape.
The messages never really seem to slow down, but they do seem to have gotten much more prolific, especially when sharing images. And that’s due to the development of AI and technology. You actually have to be in someone’s presence to do that, which is why DeepFace is now able to claim far more victims than obviously image-based sexual abuse, whereas at the moment you don’t really need that.
Many women have reached out for assistance, but many of them are deeply embarrassed by what they are going through. I believe this is because they don’t want people to be aware of. They require a conversation starter. I’ve actually put the revenge porn in my bio right now, so hopefully people will see it and donate to charities that can help them. I always try my best to direct them there.
In a nutshell, I’ve been having a few discussions about the fact that you must have reported image-based sexual abuse within a six-month period, which really blew my mind.
I don’t have the right to report anything if I discover a video of myself being uploaded to PornHub that has been there for about a year and a half because it hasn’t been updated. It should just be a life-long crime, regardless of when it was committed, and it should always remain that way. I’ve been talking about that as much as I can when giving speeches, so to speak.
I’m also fighting to have online child pornography and image-based sexual abuse taken seriously. So, if something is found to be underage porn, it is added to a list and then made illegal. And any website that hosts it is therefore considered to be a source of illegal activity and is taking it very seriously. Nothing is done to protect the footage or place it in a different category than anything else if you can demonstrate that it is unconsensual and sexually abusive. Therefore, the person who took the video is still entitled to the copyright even though you have to go through a lengthy legal process. It holds less weight than underage unconsented footage when charities try to get things taken down.
If you’ve been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
Source: Mirror
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