Yasmin Benoit: The Birth of a Movement

This is an excerpt from the Qwear 2025 Pride Zine. To read the full story, download the digital version for free or support Qwear by ordering a printed copy.

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Since the formation of the LGBTQIA+ acronym in the late 1980s, most mainstream spaces have been dominated by the first five letters.

For decades, the inclusion of the “A” has been debated. Some insisted it stood for “ally,” while others questioned whether asexual and aromantic people even belonged. But there are more asexual people than you might think - approximately 1% of the population falls on the ace spectrum.

Enter alternative British model Yasmin Benoit. 

“We live in a society obsessed with relationships; where to love and be loved by another person is not only the ultimate aspiration, but the expectation.”

—Yasmin Benoit

As a Black woman who embraces body-conscious, expressive fashion, she challenges narrow assumptions about what asexuality looks like. “People tend to associate asexuality with nerdy white kids,” Yasmin told DIVA. “Women like me will continue to be dismissed as unlovable, ugly, frigid and boring. This is especially true for Black women, who are so hypersexualized, that to be a Black asexual woman seems entirely contradictory to people,” She shared in Glamour.

In 2019, Yasmin reached out to Qwear looking for a platform to dismantle asexual stereotypes. Her resulting article series and hashtag, #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike, quickly grew into the world’s leading asexual visibility campaign. 

“The British activist is arguably now the best-known asexual advocate in the world,” wrote Queerty. Yasmin won an Attitude Pride Award in 2021 and “Campaigner/Influencer of the Year” at the Rainbow Honours in 2022. 

Yasmin Benoit published 10 style pieces on qwearfashion.com, each spotlighting a different facet of asexual identity—Black, femme, and beyond. The campaign features individuals wearing everything from mesh tops, metallic skirts, and dramatic eyeliner to leather jackets, faux fur coats, and glittery heels, proving that expressing your full aesthetic self and being asexual are not mutually exclusive.

“On one side of the coin, it’s thought that people come to identify as asexual because they’re too unattractive to get a partner. On the other side, if you’re not trying to sexually attract someone, you should try to blend into the background and dress in a way that doesn’t attract attention. Who’ve you got to impress? We shouldn’t feel the desire to dress up — to wear flattering clothes and highlight our best features — because we’re not trying to entice anyone. This assumes that people dress to please others and not themselves.” Yasmin shared in her debut Qwear article.

By decentering sex and romantic relationships, Yasmin offers a transformative lens for people of all sexualities to reconsider what gives life meaning. “We live in a society obsessed with relationships; where to love and be loved by another person is not only the ultimate aspiration, but the expectation,” Yasmin Benoit published in Glamour Magazine. “I don’t need a partner to complete me – I’m complete just the way I am.”

This is an excerpt from the Qwear 2025 Pride Zine. To read the full story, download the digital version for free or support Qwear by ordering a printed copy.

Download Free Order Print ($25)