Featured image courtesy of Shane Rounce on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.

Content warning: This article contains mention of sexual assault.

Annabel Jeffery

Georgia Harrison may be best known for entering the Love Island villa back in 2017, but today she has her sights set on a different exclusive location: the House of Commons.

Harrison, author and sexual assault campaigner, has revealed that she has “had serious conversations” with Labour MPs about becoming an MP for one of Essex’s 18 constituencies.

With multiple ex-Love Islanders — including season four’s Zara McDermott — now using their platforms to raise awareness of social issues, could this reflect a wider pattern emerging from the show? Is this a move in the right direction, to debunk the unintelligent and vain stereotypes associated with reality TV shows such as Love Island?

Who is Georgia Harrison?

Harrison found her big break back in 2014 when she joined the cast of The Only Way is Essex.

“I barely left the house and when I did it was really hard not to panic”

After appearing on Love Island in 2017, she gained an even wider public audience. The final bombshell to enter the villa at the time, she certainly turned heads when she walked in. Now, she educates her 1.2 million Instagram followers on the widespread issue of revenge porn.

Her ex-partner and previous 2016 Big Brother winner, Stephen Bear, had used CCTV cameras in his garden to record the pair having sex in August 2020. It was later that day that he sent the recording to a friend without her consent, before uploading it to his verified OnlyFans account three months later. Within days it had spread all over the internet.

Harrison became aware of the viral video circulating online at the end of 2020. She decided to waive her automatic right to anonymity, as she felt it had been “taken away” from her regardless. She explained that she wanted to “stand in solidarity with” all victims of this crime. Harrison had to wait 18 months for Bear’s trial.

“anyone who shares revenge porn online receives a minimum six-month sentence”

“I barely left the house and when I did it was really hard not to panic,” she revealed in an interview with The Guardian. Several brands she was working with at the time dropped her. She has also spoken about her experience with septic shock due to the stress at this time.

Bear was not sentenced until March this year: he received 21 months imprisonment. Harrison may have fought and won the battle against her abuser, but her work has not stopped there.

Changing the Bill

Georgia Harrison has been calling for the justice system to prioritise sexual assault victims. Her ITV documentary Revenge Porn: Georgia v. Bear, shows her experience of taking on her abuser. Following this, she has fought relentlessly for the Online Safety Bill to be amended.

“only 4 per cent of suspected offenders were charged or summoned”

Created in 2015, the bill originally stated that perpetrators could only be convicted providing there was sufficient evidence to prove that they intended to cause distress. Thanks to the work of Harrison and other campaigners, the government amended this bill in June this year. Today, anyone who shares revenge porn online receives a minimum six-month sentence regardless of its intent.

This is hugely significant, and this amendment was vital to change to put women’s safety first. According to Refuge, a charity that supports survivors of domestic abuse, 13,860 intimate image offences were recorded by 24 police forces between January 2019 and July 2022. Of these offences, only 4 per cent of suspected offenders were charged or summoned, with a conviction even less likely.

Who ‘should’ become an MP?

Harrison’s potential MP candidature has seen mixed reactions. Twitter users have highlighted the hypocrisy of Harrison’s advocacy for more ‘normal’ people going into politics. After all, she has built her platform by entering a very selective, superficial environment in reality TV.

Is a TV programme that is well-known for only showcasing conventionally “attractive” contestants any different from the non-diverse world of politics?

As both are hugely influential platforms, albeit in rather different ways, neither platform provides sufficient representation for the British public. But we need figures like Harrison to change this. She conforms to neither the conventions of a typical politician nor to those of a typical Love Island contestant. She breaks the stereotypes of both very exclusive, very selective environments. It communicates to young women that no matter who they are, they too can use their voices to fight for their rights.

Harrison would be entering a parliament where only 35 per cent of female MPs believe that the “culture of parliament is inclusive” for people like themselves. This recapitulates the necessity for more women in politics to begin to face this divisive culture head-on, rather than cower away from it.

By no means is a white, slim, cisgender, non-disabled woman going to resolve all of our lack of parliamentary representation. But Harrison is an example to people that no matter what stereotypes they may be attached to, their voice always deserves to be represented in politics.

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Featured image courtesy of Shane Rounce via Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.

Second year BA Modern Languages Student at University of Exeter | Features, Opinion and Lifestyle writer for Empoword Journalism, Exeposé and Razz. Strong interest in women's rights, culture and international current affairs.

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