Skinny Beer

Alcoholism and sexuality have often gone hand in hand. The Greek God of wine Dionysus is often portrayed amongst a plenitude of young women, Absinthe is commonly associated with its “green fairy mascot” (la fée verte) and for a plenitude of years this has resulted in the problem of women’s self image.

However now with the introduction of a new Australian beer – Skinny Beer, this has taken this already bloated market to a whole new low:

Complete with their own line of living “skinny Blondes” this new beer has taken the blatant and irrational sexualisation of women to all new levels.

With model tag lines such as:

“Before I was a Skinny Blonde, I was a Large Red head”

and

“There are two main requirements in being a Skinny Blonde, You must be skinny and blonde”

The beer is slowly trying to promote this behaviour as “oh, we’re just having fun”.

Skinny Blonde spokesman Hamish Rosser said the beer was supposed to be a "bit of cheeky fun".

"This generation of Aussies have grown up on the beach and topless girls in bikinis are commonplace. The label and website is in no way meant to offend women or anyone else, rather embrace the Australian beach culture." Mr Rosser, a former member of The Vines rock band.

However, I want to know what the VAADA and AHA is doing about this! This is clearly not just “some advertising” their entire beer promotes a very serious dangers in the forms of binge drinking and promotion of eating disorders – I don’t know about you, but I have NEVER seen girls so photoshop’ed on a beach!

Luckily enough, VicHealth and Women's Forum Australia are standing up to this atrocity regarding itself as a beverage:

VicHealth chief Todd Harper slammed the use of nudity to encourage drinking:
"The website should be shut down and we should be using this as an opportunity to review the way the alcohol industry promotes products and enjoys the benefit of self-regulation in relation to alcohol advertising."

This being said, there is still not enough being done, company has clearly gone too far.

- Hanna

Skinny Blone Website
Health, women's groups demand ban on Skinny Blonde beer Article

The Begining.

I suppose I need to start with an introduction. Firstly, I’m Hanna Oxford, plus-size Model, Photographer and advocate for women’s self esteem.

I’m currently developing a photography studio in inner city Melbourne directed at women with body image problems – I’m doing this for the following reasons:

1. After working for 3 years in the US (located in Boston) as a plus-size model, I returned to Australia with a completely new appreciation for the plus-size industry.

In the US the industry it’s empowering, it’s loveable and it’s admired. Frightfully I found my home (Australia) to have the upmost distain for everything plus size.

• I found that generally a plus size model in the US is between 85kg-120kg (170lbs-240lbs)
• In Australia “plus-size” models are 50-70kgs (110lbs-140lbs).
• In the US, a pus-size model are respected and treated the same way as any other model.
• In Australia, “plus-size” models are a very small branch of the fashion industry – mostly shunned away by agencies and hardly hired by major corporations.

2. For the first 4 years of my adolescents, I was teetering between bulimia and anorexia.
This resulted in many hospital visits, group therapy sessions and specialised eating plans – unfortunately nothing seemed to work.

At 17, I moved to Boston where a photographer immediately picked me up as a model. For the first 4 months I suffered imperfection complexes, until the photographer had an open gallery. For the first time I saw my images on display and judged by the general public – and…

Everyone loved them. They saw me as a beautiful human being without fault – a piece of beautiful artwork.

I want other women who feel the same way I used to, to see themselves – only them up there and only them who are beautiful – of course, this isn’t a one fix solution for everyone, but I want to provide the opportunity for women to see themselves that way.

I'm setting this blog up so anyone whoes interested can follow my progress!

Alternitavly, you can find me on the following site:
Ms. Eerie @ Deviant Art - you can find my newest photos and artworks.
Ms. Eerie @ Model Mayhem
Ms. Eerie @ Twitter!

Thanks for reading, any comments good or bad will be appreciated!
- Hanna