Mariah Carey's Censored Images in the Middle East

The Foreign Policy Passport blog had a link to an Arabic website today (perhaps an activist bloggers'? I can't read Arabic >.<) showing all the different ways in which Mariah Carey's sexy clothing has been censored to be more demure. In some cases the Photoshopping was very professional, but in others (see white cat photo) it was pure ridiculousness. Either way, though, it's fascinating to see it, and to be reminded that censorship goes beyond TV, radio, and internet. It applies to art forms, too, like calendars and CD covers.

To me there's an innate contradiction in censoring the hyper-sexualized image of Mariah Carey while simultaneously allowing the spread of her music, which has "sexy" and "liberated" lyrics, but maybe the language barrier accounted for this slip. Also, maybe her worldwide popularity can be likened to the worldwide popularity of "Dallas" -- difference audiences may decode her music differently, so perhaps she's not received as such a sex symbol there.

Check out the gallery (and laugh at the white cat photo with me) here: http://www.ibrii.com/n/LMWpP

Epic.