Interesting. This may be completely my biased take on things, but I view Amanda Palmer more as art than as pop culture although I do admit my reasoning probably wouldn't hold up in court.

I don't think the two as necessarily mutually exclusive. But I agree that certain images are regularly packaged and sold as beauty. I still think Amanda's hot - but I have a Cabaret bias.

What do you think of Nastassija Kinski's famed belly shot?

Not bad. What else ya got?

And I didn't say anything against Amanda Palmer. She looks fine to me. Better bellywise than almost all the pictures in the collage. I just think it's silly to be shocked that a record company that uses videos to sell its soap would be unhealthily concerned about appearances.

Back to the OP for a minute - I have some experience in the record biz, and I'm reading this story a little differently. I absolutely believe that the A&R guy might be a pig who made comments that were offensive. I absolutely believe that the label won't release her from the contract. But I don't think that they're not promoting the record because she won't edit her belly. No way. The label has an investment in an artist, and the industry is hurting right now. They won't let her go because they want to recoup their investment. I imagine that the record isn't what the label expected (the original plan was to do a quickie record in one week - voice and minimal instrumentation) - and they have no idea how to sell it. Times are tough. A part of me thinks that the belly story is an attempt at viral marketing, when standard promotions and marketing are failing. If that turns out to be true, it's funny that the one LoT member who does viral web marketing for a living is the one who introduced the topic here...