Date: 17 January 2003

Being called a drunk is something irrational, but Thailand's Arunothai Sriaran is delighted to be crowned as "Miss Drunk". Arunothai was so named at a contest aiming to promote Thai wines. She is a wine seller who defeated 14 other female rivals by completing the obstacle course in seven seconds after putting down five pegs of wine. A peg is approximately 0.1 liters. To make the course harder, the contestants were dressed in traditional Thai dresses of heavy silk finery including golden headgear.

The contest, held by a private company, aims at promoting Thai local products and encouraging people to stop drinking foreign whiskey.

The contest went on despite objection by some Thai senators who regarded it as a dishonor to the dignity of Thai women. In Buddhist society like Thailand, public drunkenness, especially by women is frowned upon.

Miss Drunk Arunothai expressed her disagreement on that conservative protest by saying that she could not understand why people criticize them for promoting local production, and that one had to accept the truth that women drinking wine was widely common in the society.

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