Compliment?

My partner just saw the drag show pictures--she couldn't go because she had a conference in Calgary to attend--and commented how, with my hairy chest, etc., ugly I was. She meant this as a compliment. As in, "look how manly you are; you can't even pass off for a woman, like that guy there." But somehow I didn't take it as one. Perhaps if I hadn't put so much effort into the female...