DIVA spoke to the asexual activist about the show’s new sex therapist
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY NETFLIX AND YASMIN BENOIT
*This interview will involve spoilers – you have been warned*
Who else has been binge-watching Sex Education season four? You’re not alone. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, this final instalment of the show is queerer than ever. From new trans representation to continuing the queer storylines of fan favourite characters, we have loved watching all of the characters blossom.
One new character in particular which has caught audiences’ attention is that of O – Otis’ new rival sex therapist. Complete with a huge social media following and a well-established sex clinic of her own, O acts as Otis’ new antagonist in this series.
Played by Thaddea Graham, O’s character is much more than just a nuisance for Otis. She provides some long-awaited for asexual representation. While we’ve seen an increase in asexual characters onscreen (Isaac in Netflix’s Heartstopper), O’s character signifies a shift in the mainstream narrative about what an asexual woman looks like.
And behind this storyline is none other than asexual activist and model Yasmin Benoit. Known for her activism online and working with organisations such as Stonewall to raise awareness about the asexual rights, there was no better person to act as a writer and script consultant on this new series of Sex Education.
We sat down with Yasmin Benoit to talk about the importance of O for asexual representation.
What inspired the storyline of O?
Honestly, I was putting a lot of myself into it! After a lifetime of feeling like I had never seen myself represented, I decided to make her a mini-me. We changed her a lot from the original premise. She was supposed to have this almost mythical understanding of sexuality and sex at first. But I was like: you can be asexual and know about sex without being this higher power! Let’s ground her a bit. I also thought it was so important that her character wasn’t white.
Why is having the representation of an asexual woman of colour so important for the community?
It’s important because asexual characters never tend to be people of colour. In TV, media, and articles, if people want to amplify asexual voices they will pick a white person. It definitely creates an idea that asexuality is this very white thing.
What do you hope that O’s character brings to conversations about asexuality?
I hope that she reminds people that asexuality is part of the conversation about sexuality. If you’re going to have shows about sexuality, asexuality needs to be in it.
Also, I hope it reminds people that being asexual doesn’t mean that you have no awareness of what it means to be sexual. People assume that if you’re asexual you should be perplexed by sex. I really wanted to have a character who knows her stuff, who’s sex-positive, and who’s educating the whole school about it. She’s not a wallflower character at all – that’s what I wanted to go for. I wanted to combat the infantilization that asexual people often get.
What scenes did you enjoy working on the most?
I loved working on the scenes where you could see the rivalry between O and Otis. It also allowed us to veer into conversations about privilege because Otis is convinced that he has to be better than O by default.
Why is it so important that O is such a central character in the story?
She needed to be a fully fleshed-out character. She’s not just woe is me. The last asexual storyline on the show was about the character who was just confused about her sexuality. With O, her asexuality doesn’t even come up until later. She has a whole bunch of other stuff going on. Asexuality doesn’t have to be your whole personality. Storylines about asexual characters don’t have to be them struggling with their asexuality. They can be flourishing.
What was it like writing O’s coming out scene?
I wanted to be explicit. So many shows that “depict” asexuality won’t use the word asexual. They don’t want to give a label to it. I wanted it to be explicit, I didn’t want people “filling in the blanks”, and I didn’t want it to be something the producer says after the show has been out for ages like Dumbledore. Say it, make it clear, let her explain her experience. I was glad that we got to be non-cryptic about it.
You can watch all four seasons of Sex Education on Netflix now.
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