Siufung Law, a genderqueer bodybuilder from Hong Kong, uses sculpting her body to push the boundaries of how we define gender.
”My body is a blend of everything and I’m here to show people a possibility, an alternative beyond a binary understanding of what a man’s or woman’s body should look like,” Law said in an interview.
A teaching assistant, Law, 28, was born a woman and is forced to compete as one as a bodybuilder. As she became more aware of her sexuality and gender, Law started to identify as a transgender man since Law acted and was perceived as a male in social settings. But that characterization also did not fit once she (Law’s preferred pronoun) discovered bodybuilding and Law now refers to herself as genderqueer.
“I started to do more research into female bodybuilding and fell in love with it. It was inspiring to see that women could build such a masculine physique too,” Law said.
Law then realized that the label “trans man” also didn’t fit her gender identity.
“I [identified] more as a transgender man [before I started bodybuilding] but I also doubted whether or not I fit in that category. I never felt like my narrative fits with the normative narrative of transgender men. I don’t think of myself as a man entirely,” Law said.
“Most of the transgender folks I’ve met in Hong Kong are concerned about physical transitions, which I’m not at all interested in. I see bodybuilding as a way out for someone who doesn’t want to or cannot go through Hormonal Replacement Therapy or top surgery. It’s possible for me to sculpt my chest into a ‘man’s chest’ without going under the knife so to speak.”
Law also loved competing in a bikini, bringing out her feminine identity. “I realized I was genderqueer because I was less concerned about being manly all the time,” Law said.
Despite acceptance from family and friends, Law has faced discrimination from people thinking she’s a man trying to sneak into a female locker room. And she has been verbally abused.
“I think a lot of discrimination stems from misunderstanding or ignorance,” Law said. “The worst thing is people who do not want to listen and argue with me instead.
“The more I talk to them, I realize they’re not afraid of me, but they’re more affected by some cultural construct of men as being different.”
Law does not consider herself an activist, yet is using bodybuilding as a platform to highlight the changing nature and fluidity of gender for some people. She won the women’s open division at this year’s Vancouver Pro Qualifier, which has only raised her profile.
If Law is correct that “we are moving towards a world where gender fluidity and neutrality become the trend,” she will be one of the pioneers.
Siufung Law can be followed on Instagram.
