Miss November is kimchi hot!

You know you’ve really made multicultural progress when “your women” are gracing Playboy covers.

Okay, not really, but I do want to say hooray for Playboy’s first 100% Korean American Playmate of the Month! Grace Kim is Miss November 2008. Watch out. I might even buy a copy. Just for the articles, of course.

When the news of Kim first came to me, I was not too surprised. It seems like Middle America woke up to Asian girls in mainstream media with the unfortunate onset of Tila Tequila. Also, as we’ve established numerous times in Googling for Yellow Fever, Asian women have often been depicted as hot and sexy or sweet and demure. In short, Asian chicks? Generally desirable.

The more I read about Kim, though, the more I want her to be my BFF from afar. She’s 29 and looks mighty fine for her age. She graduated from UCLA with a major in English Literature and wants to be a writer. She used to work for Activision, where she served as the PR lead for Guitar Hero. As much as I like to call bimbos out as bimbos, she actually sounds fairly intelligent and savvy. She hasn’t told her family yet, and I’m sure her discretion is also a smart way to prolongue her time in the limelight. Follow-up stories galore! Some interview notes from Kotaku:

Before you think, “Oh, what a burden,” consider that becoming a Playmate is a yearlong process, from test Polaroid to final publication, fraught with acceptance, rejection, uncertainty — and nondisclosure — in between. The waiting is the world’s worst job interview, for either gender. Before you imagine, “What a problem, having the opposite sex want me,” think of what it would mean, to reveal yourself as a potential Playboy centerfold in the context of an everyday professional workplace.

Especially — look to your left, look to your right — among a bunch of gamers.

Also, Kim explained in her MySpace blog why she poses with a Rock Band guitar and not a Guitar Hero axe:

1) why I’m posing with a RB instruments when I used to work for ATVI (the real reason being that when I was asked to bring in both, my GH controller was a mess- I’d crudely etched my name in it, there were crinkly stickers all over it (you know, the cheesy ones that go with the kit)- it wouldn’t have made for an aesthetically-looking pictorial), and 2) why I made the decision to jump ship from ATVI to pose nude for Playboy if I’m so in love with musical gaming (the answer to that is that I simply COULD NOT TURN DOWN AN OPPORTUNITY TO POSE AS THE FIRST 100% KOREAN PLAYMATE CENTERFOLD IN HISTORY- no matter how good of a gig I had at ATVI- would you have?)

And yeah, she’s totally my friend on MySpace now.

Kim’s using what she’s been given the best way she knows how, and if you were caught in such a moment, you’d probably make the same choice, too. This isn’t a post about the objectification of women, though the mentioning of “porn” often makes it so. This is just a girl who was presented with a golden opportunity and knows how to leverage for herself. In the meantime, she is fully aware of the community she is representing, and I appreciate her acknowledging that connection. If she got nothing out of being a Playmate, you could say she’s being exploited. But she knows and has stated how this will help her writing career, and by all means, it probably will.

As for her being a nerd, Lionheart Society says it simply:

give some nerd a wet dream. learn to speak CSS

You’re probably wondering what she looks like. Lemme just say she’d be cute even without the fake eyelashes. I’ve posted my favorite photo of her, but after the jump, because though she’s posing with a harmless Rock Band guitar, she is showing just the slightest bit of nip. For those of you arriving here from a direct link, ha-ha, I got you! Look out, your manager’s reading over your shoulder right now…

And in case you were hoping to accuse me of perpetuating Yellow Fever:

I’m celebrating that she’s a multidimensional Asian American being highlighted in a mainstream publication.

She’s hot because she’s hot. Her being Asian does not make her hot. Her being Asian makes her a first.

Update: On why I’d only want to be her “BFF from afar,” I just can’t stand PR personalities. With the exception of my female gaming PR friend, though:

Friend: my coworkers
Friend: : 100% korean american? bullshit more like 97% korean american, 3% silicon

Friend: there’s no way she’s that tiny, that pretty, and with that big of a rack
Friend: the world cannot be that good to her
Friend: sorry

Friend: plus she’s korean man
Friend: they live for surgery

One question: Why is she wearing a watch?