Korean Men Wear Manties!

Korean men wear manties! All of them!

The "boxers vs. briefs" debate ceases to exist here. There are no boxers or briefs, unless you count the above picture as a brief. Men here prefer bikini underwear which come in a variety of prints: Butterflies (like above) leopard, zebra, red silk, etc.

Now, I have no problem with men having a little fun and going a little wacky with the undergarments, hell, I think it's entertaining. However, it's just one more thing that bugs me here. In my "I miss sex" post earlier this month, I touched on how men are overtly cute here... and I don't mean that in a good way.

If I've learned nothing else about myself while living in Korea, I have learned this: I like masculine men. There I said it. I like a guy who is a little rough around the edges, one who actually has 5 o'clock shadow by the end of the day, someone who actually gets dirty from time to time and whose arm muscles are actually bigger than mine.

And even as adorable as I find my co-teacher, Dong-Uk, he is just that... adorable. Anytime I try to have a conversation with him he spends half the time covering his face, giggling in embarrassment, over the most mundane topics. And it's not just him. It's a cultural thing. Most Koreans are culturally shy. Even my "outgoing" coworkers who hit on me on a regular basis end up giggling and literally running away when I talk to them. I miss confidence. I miss that cockiness that for some reasons Americans just seem to be born with.

Men really play up to the cultural cuteness here. There is one commercial that I see 100 times a day that drives me crazy. The male actor, while pitching his product, is playing coy. Similar to the way you know when a woman is flirting... batting his eyelashes, tilting his head back, finger in his mouth, then covers his mouth as he giggles and collapses his shoulders downward. This commercial makes me want to scream, "Man up, damnit!!"

This totally confuses me. I've never been into jocks, or jarheads, or meatheads or any kind of macho tough guy before. But a few weeks ago, at Mud-fest, it might as well have been called Meat-fest! There were foreign men everywhere. Big ones, towering over me, with big man muscles and you could feel the testosterone in the air. My girlfriends and I were like kids in a candy store!!!

On my first day teaching at my middle school I was asked to stand up in front of the faculty and introduce myself. Afterwards, they had a few questions for me.

#1: Q: Are you married?
A: No.
#2: Q: How do you feel about dating Korean men?
A: Uuuuhhhh.....

At the time, that was an accurate answer. I was indifferent. Neither for nor against the idea. Now I'm sorry to say that I'm not really interested.

Unless... you are talking about my hunky hunky Korean crush (me and about every other female in Asia) Lee Byung Hun. Mmmmmm. (Go check out the new G.I. Joe movie to get a taste of the manliest man in Korea! God love him!)