What: Model, Activist, Writer
When: June 10, 1996 - Present
(Image Description: a photo of Benoit from the waist up with the words â# This is what asexual looks likeâ over it. She is a black woman with a medium dark complexion. She has long straight dark hair, excellent eyebrows, and dark eyes. She is wearing a leather/latex tank top/spaghetti strap top and pants/a skirt of the same material. She has her arms akimbo. Â End ID)
Benoit is a model, writer, LGBTQ+ Activist, and a self proclaimed metal head.
She works hard to spread awareness of asexuality and dispel myths about us using her platform and her sizable social media presence (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter). She is often a contributor to queer media and writes often on asexuality as well as fighting hard for visibility and representation for asexuals, Queer POC, and POC in general. Her YouTube channel is particularly of note in which she deals with the ongoing problem of aphobia despite the hate and bile she gets in return.
(Image description: a photo of Benoit in fishnet stockings and a shirt with the Venus symbol with devil horns on it. She is snarling and has her hand in her hair.)
I have a lot of quotes from Benoit because she is extremely eloquent and points out a lot of things I, at the very least, relate to.
âIt has nothing to do with how you lookâthatâs something I get a lotâpeople are like: âOh but youâre good looking, you donât need to be asexual,â which tells me that people think that there is an asexual look and that it isnât a good one, and two that asexuality is a choice that people take when they canât get dates or that they canât get laid.â
âYou barely see asexual people as it is, let alone a black asexual personâŠI think that representation is definitely very important because I think the LGBTQIA+ community in general is pretty whitewashed in its representationâŠEven in the LGBTQIA community, I find that people tend to cut out the A or think that the A stands for allies.â
âOne of the benefits of being asexual is definitely that you donât have to worry aboutâif youâre aromanticâyou really donât worry about relationship stuff.â
-Yasmin Benoit, all from a Pink News interview, November 2018
(Image Description: a photo of Benoit at some kind of a show or ceremony. She stands in front of a wall with a logo reading âDivaâ repeated all over it. She is smiling with her hands on her hips and wearing a short black dress.)
âI may not be in the first four letters, but I do not relate to the heterosexual experience in the slightest.â
â[On modeling as an aromantic asexual] I believe one comment [on one of her photographs] was âthat girl looks like sheâs about as asexual as a stray dogâ. And Iâm not entirely sure what that means!? Are stray dogs particularly sexual creatures? They were like âif sheâs asexual why is she getting her picture taken? Why is she wearing those clothes?â You obviously donât understand what modelling is, you have to get your picture taken, you have to wear the clothesâŠI do think people outside of my circle find it kind of difficult to comprehend. And even for me IN it, itâs difficult to navigate sometimes! People see that I do lingerie and are like, âoh sheâll probably just take any job.â But Iâm VERY specific [with the jobs I take]. Iâll be like, âlingerie in what way?ââŠIf you see a girl on the cover of GQ in a bra, sheâs not selling the bra. The bra is irrelevant to the equation, itâs her that youâre supposed to be looking at. So Iâm always like, âam I showing off a product, which is kind of the point, or am I supposed to just be showing off myself?â Iâm kind of picky over whether the images are aimed at titlating somebody or if theyâre aimed at commercially making the clothes look as good as possible â which is my goal with it. From within the industry, itâs complicated, especially because of my body shape. If you have anything above an A cup then youâre pretty much in the lingerie category. And everything you do is seen as being more sexualised. Itâs interesting navigating it from within and to people outside of it as well.â
âThe only reason I noticed I was asexual was around the time everyone else realised they werenât asexual. I remember coming back from the summer holidays thinking, whatâs happened to everyone?â
âI want people to understand that asexuality is literally just what it says on the tinâŠDonât approach it with all of these other ideas of how itâs supposed to be or how the story is supposed to end⊠itâs literally just normal people, every type of person, every country, every background, every occupation, itâs not just young confused teenagers, itâs not just people who look a certain way. Itâs a diverse group of people and the same thing as youâd expect from any other community. Itâs not a psychological problem, itâs not a physical problem⊠for a lot of people itâs not a problem! Itâs literally just one element of a normal personâs life. So just treat it like that, without any of the extra baggage that people feel the need to throw on top of it.â
-Yasmin Benoit, all from a The Nopebook interview, March, 2019
*She does not have a Wikipedia page
(Image description: a photo of Benoit wearing fishnet stockings, a fishnet undershirt, and a long t-shirt with a cartoon whale on it. Around the whale in block print it says âAsexuwhaleâ. End ID)
