Was told the other day by a commenter on my homepage that I’m “not exactly feminine looking”, which is fine with me because let me tell you, Snickers definitely has NO complaints about what my body looks like… or feels like… or moves like.
I’m a machine… hahaha.
That’s ok Anonymous. I’m not so feminine looking and you’re not so anonymous… hahaha.
No but seriously. It’s ok with me, all jokes aside. It made me laugh though as it reminded me of back when some commenter wrote that I “look like a Chinese boy”… as opposed to a Korean boy… because we all know it’s CHINESE BOYS who live in Korea and not the obvious, that being Korean boys… hahaha.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
My mother was a solid lady with kicking curves that’d kick you to the curb if you weren’t careful, and my father thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. When I was younger, she’d walk around on the top floor of the house in just her panties and bra, with not a care in the world and in all her glory. I envied her for being so confident in her skin and not hiding herself or trying to be perfect. It’s not that she didn’t want to lose weight but she realized that she only had one body. She had the husband of many years and the family she always wanted but never thought she’d actually get so why would she want to be a size zero.
It wasn’t until I moved to Korea that I became self-conscious of my body. Then when I restarted boxing and was stepping on the scale just as much as I was stepping into training, the pressure increased. Korea is a very image-conscious country and though I am confident with my body and comfortable in my own skin, there are times when I have to laugh at what Korea thinks is beautiful and then I feel sad about just how much Korea has become overly obsessed with image.
Beauty is definitely not universal.
Take for example Hyun Bin, a male Korean actor. I once regarded him as one of the best-looking male actors here but then when the whole V-line craze flooded Korea Hyun Bin went and got surgery. He got his jaw bones shaved… yes, SHAVED! He got his jaw bones surgically shaved so that his jaw line would be more defined, like a V. Now he’s incredibly popular and you can’t go anywhere without seeing him in advertisements, ironically he advertises products that supposedly help promote V-line… how ironic! Double-eye lid surgeries are crazy popular here, with girls as young as middle school getting the surgery done. Plastic surgery on children?! It’s such a bizarre idea to us Westerners but it’s very common here. The thing that strikes me is just how open they talk about it too.
This past week I messages a close Korean girl friend of mine, asking her why she’s been MIA. Next thing I knew it she was texting me post-surgery pictures. She’s was off getting a new nose, that’s why she hasn’t been around, nice. When I asked her why she’d ever consider changing her already beautiful face she noted that a couple of her ex-boyfriends commonly commented about her nose, labeling it a “button nose”, whatever that means.
“Would you ever get plastic surgery Amy?” she asked me.
“No” I said. “If you don’t like the way I look, don’t look at me.”
As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).
After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.
Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.
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2 comments:
I wanted to let you know that I think you have an amazing body (I'm truly jealous). Growing up, I was always in sports (gymnastics and wrestling). Needless to say my arms and shoulders were pretty big. Sometimes comments hurt..but I always had a certain pride in it too. Now, I still have slightly broad shoulders but the muscle definition is gone. Anyway, don't let anyone tell you different. And the guys that think otherwise are shallow douchebags.
Hi Jaclyna,
Hey... I just responded to another comment you left me. Sorry for the delay :(
Please don't be jealous of my body. I'm flattered but often I find myself enving others for their ability to be more carefree with what they do, what they eat and so forth.
Ya, sometimes comments do hurt. I try to take everything with a grain of salt, after all beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it's hard when I am constantly comfronted by blunt people who really don't put much compassion into their words or fail to see the strength of harsh comments. I really put myself out there, not only with my boxing but here on my homepage. Many people don't but I find it rather ironically comical that those who are so quick to throw remarks and hurtful comments at me are also the ones who sign their comments with 'Anonymous'.
Thanks for the positive comment though Jaclyna. I think strong IS beautiful and so I'm not about to stop being who and what I want to be.
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