Anne Hathaway walked the red carpet to promote her new movie this week, but the A-lister was upstaged by her baby bump … or rather, cruel comments about whether or not it was real.
Within hours of The End of Oak Street’s premiere on Sunday, social media was awash with speculation about Anne’s pregnancy, which was on full display, thanks to the actor’s crop top and low-rise jeans combo. “Why does it look fake?” one person commented under a TikTok video of Anne’s red carpet outfit. “It does look fake. There’s body makeup on it,” added another.
Although Anne later took to Instagram with a cheeky clapback, writing “Fake hair, real bump,” the absurdity of questioning whether a visibly expectant mother is actually pregnant is just another reminder that women cannot win.
Anne Hathaway is pregnant, and the internet has something to say about it
Sadly, negativity towards women and our bodies is nothing new. Neither A-listers like Anne nor the average American grabbing groceries at the store can escape the the relentless scrutiny. We’re either too fat. Too thin. Aging too quickly. Or aging suspiciously well. It’s no wonder then that Body Dysmorphic Disorder is more common in women, according to most general population studies.
“This is why women and girls feel shame around their bodies,” body confidence influencer Alex Light wrote on Instagram in response to the commentary on Anne’s baby bump. “It is disgraceful.”
Going beyond claims that Anne’s bump is “fake,” Alex pointed to the language being used to describe the celeb’s pregnancy. This included words like “gross” and “creepy.”
“We tell women that they should be confident, that they should love their bodies and embrace the changes that come with pregnancy and motherhood,” Alex said. “But, look what happens when a woman actually does that.”
The irony here is that Anne did exactly what society keeps telling women to do. Yet, strangers online debated in their masses whether that body was even real. To that end, society can tell women to “love themselves” all it wants, but as long as our bodies are treated as public property to be analyzed and dissected, that advice will remain just another impossible ideal.
TELL US – HOW DID YOU REACT TO ANNE HATHAWAY’S RED CARPET BABY BUMP? AND, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE “FAKE” DISCOURSE SURROUNDING IT?
