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Feminists Around the World: Yasmin Benoit · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I Never Told you, production by Hurt Radio, and.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: We are continuing our journey in celebrating pride here in
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  Speaker 2: the US. But we are talking about an activist, advocate, model, writer,
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  Speaker 2: and so much more from the UK. Yesmn Benoir and yes,
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  Speaker 2: obviously this is activists around the world. If you didn't know,
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  Speaker 2: Tuta So Benoir started to gain attention for her activism
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  Speaker 2: around twenty seventeen, wanting to bring in attention and awareness
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  Speaker 2: to a romantic and asexual people. And you know, we
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  Speaker 2: love talking about a romantic asexual people because we have one.
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  Speaker 2: You what have you? Benoit became vocal about different misconceptions
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  Speaker 2: and misinformation around her sexuality. So she talks about her
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  Speaker 2: figuring out her sexuality and the difficulties she had to
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  Speaker 2: navigate in her a sexuality, as well as teaching others
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  Speaker 2: how to look beyond those misconceptions. And here's something from
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  Speaker 2: her article in British Vogue. Yes she did write this,
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  Speaker 2: because again she's a writer. There is a phase in
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  Speaker 2: our lives when everyone seems asexual and almost everyone seems
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  Speaker 2: a romantic. It wasn't until puberty kicked in that platonic
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  Speaker 2: relationships seemed to take a back seat. My peers stopped
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  Speaker 2: wanting to play together and start wanting to date each other.
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  Speaker 2: That was when I started to realize that there was
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  Speaker 2: something different about me. I didn't seem to be experiencing
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  Speaker 2: the same urges as those around me. I chose to
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  Speaker 2: go to an all girls school in the hopes that
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  Speaker 2: in the absence of boys, everyone would stop caring about
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  Speaker 2: sex and dating. It actually had the opposite effect. There
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  Speaker 2: was a sense of deprivation in the air and the
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  Speaker 2: heightened desire to project sexuality into anything and everything. And
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  Speaker 2: she continues, having a sexual orientation isn't just natural, is
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  Speaker 2: essential as part of being a fully functional human being,
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  Speaker 2: and to romantically love and be loved by another person
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  Speaker 2: is the ultimate goal. Is part of being normal, which
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  Speaker 2: made me both abnormal and puzzling. When you're a sexual,
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  Speaker 2: people think there's something wrong with your body. When you're
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  Speaker 2: a romantic, they think there's something wrong with your soul.
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  Speaker 2: So as she was navigating these times, it was more
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  Speaker 2: difficult than she realized. So in that article, she expresses
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  Speaker 2: her fear of not being normal and being told that
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  Speaker 2: her reactions and lack of sexual wants were wrong. She
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  Speaker 2: goes on to talk about how people analyze her and
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  Speaker 2: she felt even more isolated and as if there was
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  Speaker 2: something wrong with her.
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  Speaker 1: From that same British Folgue article quote, it was suggested
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  Speaker 1: that I was suffering from my issues because I was
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  Speaker 1: socially anxious and insecure. The suggestion that my issue was
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  Speaker 1: pathological stayed with me for a long time, but not
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  Speaker 1: as much as the widely accepted theory that I was
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  Speaker 1: mentally slow. Unfortunately, that one stuck. I was referred to
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  Speaker 1: as stupid and I started to believe that was the case.
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  Speaker 1: It would impact my experience in education for the next
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  Speaker 1: eight years, long after I realized that there was a
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  Speaker 1: word for what I was.
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  Speaker 2: Asexual right, and she has done a lot of research
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  Speaker 2: and that was just the beginning. Again, she didn't stop there.
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  Speaker 2: She created the hashtag this is what asexual looks like
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  Speaker 2: and she began modeling at age sixteen, which often made
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  Speaker 2: people question her a sexuality. In fact, it was after
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  Speaker 2: her gig as an asexual lingerie model, which she still is,
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  Speaker 2: but led her to the hashtag and also her experience.
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  Speaker 2: In an appearance for a BBC three documentary about a
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  Speaker 2: sexuality which she actually didn't like and felt that it
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  Speaker 2: was a misrepresentation of a sexuality. And here's what she
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  Speaker 2: told a magazine dot UCL dot AC dot UK. It
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  Speaker 2: was her school. By the way, I knew I was
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  Speaker 2: asexual at a young age and tried to learn more
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  Speaker 2: about it as a teenager in the early twenty tens,
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  Speaker 2: but not many people were talking about it. Fast forward
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  Speaker 2: to twenty seventeen, at which point I was modeling more,
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  Speaker 2: which meant I was spending more time on social media,
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  Speaker 2: and I realized that the landscape hadn't changed much at all.
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  Speaker 2: Despite conversations having opened up about other LGBTQIA plus identity,
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  Speaker 2: there's still little discussion of a sexuality or representation of
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  Speaker 2: a sexuality in the media. I thought, quote, why not
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  Speaker 2: throw my perspective in the mix, and publicly came out
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  Speaker 2: on National Coming Out Day twenty seventeen. People cared about
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  Speaker 2: this more than I expected. Suddenly I was doing interviews,
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  Speaker 2: appearing in documentaries, and speaking at events.
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  Speaker 1: And then she understood how her words and her work
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  Speaker 1: were so important for a sexual representation. She goes on
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  Speaker 1: to talk about the spectrum of asexuality and even how
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  Speaker 1: she felt this was an opportunity to use her platform
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  Speaker 1: to dispel the misinformation and to show a different type
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  Speaker 1: of representation from the British Vogue article quote. It gave
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  Speaker 1: me the opportunity to encounter a range of asexual and
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  Speaker 1: a romantic people offline. It was then that I learned
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  Speaker 1: the significance of having an a romantic identity. There are
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  Speaker 1: many asexual people who still feel romantic attraction as well
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  Speaker 1: as a romantic people who still feel sexual attraction. They
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  Speaker 1: have their own range of experiences, their own culture, their
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  Speaker 1: own flag, and like the ACE actual community, I was
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  Speaker 1: relieved to see that they are just normal people. These
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  Speaker 1: intersecting communities are not stereotypes. They aren't just thirteen year
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  Speaker 1: old pink caared kids making up identities on Tumblr to
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  Speaker 1: feel special. They were parents, lawyers, academics, husband's girlfriends, artists, black, white,
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  Speaker 1: young old with differing feelings towards the many complex elements
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  Speaker 1: of sexuality and intimacy. Most importantly, they were happy.
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  Speaker 2: Now she has continued to advocate for our community. She
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  Speaker 2: has collaborated with different organizations to bring more awareness, including
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  Speaker 2: working with Stonewall Charity for Queer Rights. So again from
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  Speaker 2: magazine dot UCL dot AC, dot UK. She goes on
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  Speaker 2: to talk about her work with Stonewall, which was titled
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  Speaker 2: the Stone Wall with Yasmin benoir Ace Project, so it
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  Speaker 2: is quote the Stone Wall with Yasmin Benoa Ace Project,
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  Speaker 2: which began in twenty twenty two. We realized that before
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  Speaker 2: we could begin campaigning for change, we needed people to
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  Speaker 2: understand more about a sexuality and the issues we want
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  Speaker 2: to tackle. So the first phase of the project was
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  Speaker 2: to produce a report.
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  Speaker 1: And they did publish that report in twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 1: Here's some of the things they have been able to
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  Speaker 1: find to quote. We found that asexual people face discrimination
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  Speaker 1: in many aspects of their lives and that the community
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  Speaker 1: needs better legal protections. A key finding was the poor
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  Speaker 1: experience many asexual people have in the workplace. Half of
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  Speaker 1: a's people aren't out at work, and many that are
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  Speaker 1: often experienced intrusive questions are harassment. We also found that
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  Speaker 1: many as people have poor experiences in health care settings,
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  Speaker 1: where their asexuality is often inappropriately labeled a mental health condition.
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  Speaker 1: Our report calls for the World Health Organization to end
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  Speaker 1: its classification of asexuality as a mental health condition, as
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  Speaker 1: it has previously done for homosexuality. And transgender health. We're
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  Speaker 1: also calling for asexual people to be provided with protections
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  Speaker 1: under the Equality Act and for a ban on conversion therapy.
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  Speaker 2: Right Obviously, they've been working to get this research into
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  Speaker 2: the right hands as well as bring it to it
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  Speaker 2: through educational avenues such as going through colleges and obviously
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  Speaker 2: publishing within their articles and even through the NHS, So
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  Speaker 2: she is obviously still working on this. They are still
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  Speaker 2: working on that, and she is far from being done
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  Speaker 2: with any of this work. She's currently working at the
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  Speaker 2: King's College, London's Policy Institute as a visiting research fellow,
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  Speaker 2: as well as she just co authored I Believe in February,
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  Speaker 2: a new report concerning public attitude towards a sexuality, which
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  Speaker 2: is really important obviously, and yes, she is quite busy
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  Speaker 2: with her work and she has been recognized for this
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  Speaker 2: work from her website Yasmin Bernoir dot co dot uk.
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  Speaker 2: Yasmin has won an Attitude Prior Award for her activism,
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  Speaker 2: making her the first openly a romantic asexual activist to
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  Speaker 2: win an LGBTQ Plus award. She later won a Campaigner
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  Speaker 2: Influencer of the Year at the Rainbow Honors and became
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  Speaker 2: a celebrity ambassador for the Prince's Trust, and she's become
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  Speaker 2: the first asexual person to appear on the cover of
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  Speaker 2: Attitude magazine. Doing a lot of great work out there.
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  Speaker 2: You should definitely go look at her site because she
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  Speaker 2: has all of her articles in there and it's all
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  Speaker 2: so amazing, as well as where she could be found
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  Speaker 2: or if you want to follow her on all the
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  Speaker 2: social medias, which.
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  Speaker 1: You should, yes absolutely and as always, listeners, if you
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  Speaker 1: have any suggestions for this segment, please let us know.
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  Speaker 1: You can email us at Hello at stuff one Neever
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• 8:34
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• 8:36
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