Meet the asexual lingerie model who’s not here to turn anybody on
Yasmin Benoit gets told that she’s too pretty to be asexual.(@theyasminbenoit)
Proud asexual Yasmin Benoit loves being a lingerie model and is tired of having to defend her sexuality against stereotypes that assume what asexuality looks like.
Asexuality activist Yasmin Benoit has been modelling lingerie for five years and recently walked the catwalk at the London Queer Fashion Show.
Her lingerie modelling confuses a lot of people because it “doesn’t fit people’s ideas of how an asexual person is supposed to be”, she tells PinkNews.
Benoit wants people to know that you can wear sexy lingerie and still have no sexual attraction towards others because modelling lingerie “isn’t about attracting people, it’s about feeling good about yourself.
“I’m not here to try and turn anybody on.”
Asexuality doesn’t come in one look and for Benoit, asexuality looks like being a proud, black, lingerie model. All asexuals are different and there is no one stereotype, she explains.
Watch Yasmin Benoit share what it’s like to be an asexual lingerie model:
Modelling lingerie when you are asexual.
Yasmin Benoit says she doesn’t model lingerie to turn people on but “I’m pretty good at modelling lingerie so that’s why I do it”.
The outfits which Benoit models often don’t consist of more than a latex bikini or a revealing swimsuit, styles she knows “[are] designed to have a sexy style”.
However, not having a sexual attraction doesn’t stop Benoit from modelling sexy clothes because for her “sexiness is more of a style than a physical trait – I only see it as a sexy look, not a sexy person.”
But she explains that when you’re a model you will put on whatever you’re asked to wear because that’s your job.
“It would seem weird to turn down a job because I’m asexual,” she says.
Benoit has on a few occasions had negative experiences modelling lingerie as an asexual because photographers will assume that she enjoys flirting with boys and often ask her to “imagine the camera is you boyfriend”.
Moments like these isolate Benoit as she doesn’t model to please men.
“I’m not here to try and turn anybody on, I don’t even know how to do that,” she tells PinkNews.
She wants to promote the diversity of asexuality, so people don’t think that they only “wear polo necks”.
Ace diversity.
Being a black, asexual lingerie model, Benoit is striving to challenge people’s misconceptions of what asexual people look like.
She started the hashtag #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike on Twitter, as a response to people telling her that she was ‘too pretty to be asexual’.
Tired of hearing asexual stereotypes, she adds: “There isn’t an asexual way to dress, we can wear whatever the hell we want to and just because you’re asexual doesn’t mean you don’t want to look good.”
