When Scarlett Johansson walked the red carpet at the Academy Awards in Hollywood today, our attention was supposed to be focused on her incredible performances in Jojo Rabbit and Marriage Story, which earned the acclaimed actress two Oscar nominations this year.
But instead, as the 35-year-old posed in front of the cameras alongside her new fiancรฉ, the very handsome Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost, celeb-watchers on social media only had one thing on their minds โ Scarlettโs stomach.
Scarlett, who has a six-year-old daughter, Rose, with her ex-husband, the French advertising exec Romain Dauriac, looked stunning in a custom silver Oscar de la Renta gown, with a fringed bodice and figure-hugging satin skirt, which took over 300 hours of craftmanship to create, according to the designer brand.
As any woman who has ever worn a satin slip dress like Scarlettโs knows, there are two ways to handle this fabricโs insistence on clinging to our every curve, lump and bump.

SNL head writer Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson walk the red carpet at the 2020 Oscars.
(Credit: Getty)
Scarlettโs Oscar de la Renta dress showed off every inche of her figure.
(Credit: Getty)You can either squeeze your body into a too-tight piece of shapewear and spend your whole evening in a perpetual state of discomfort, with very long and arduous trips to the bathroom, or you can embrace your bellyโs natural shape and choose to ignore the unwritten rule that says womenโs stomachs must always remain flat.
It seems Scarlett chose to do the latter.

Too cute!
(Credit: Getty)Unfortunately for Scarlett, her decision meant facing an onslaught of pregnancy speculation online.
โShe might be expecting ๐คทโโ๏ธ Sheโs glowing and thereโs a little pooch,โ one fan wrote on social media.
Others wrote: โLooks like she is pregnantโ โฆ โGorgeous and possibly a baby bump?โ โฆ โGorg, but is she preggo? Not sure.โ
A conclusion was reached in many a comments section that Scarlettโs tiny, yet protruding and very normal-looking stomach was most likely the result of her happy, relaxed lifestyle, a break from the intense workout schedule often required of action film stars, and some very clingy โ albeit expensive โ satin fabric.
When one fan commented, โOMG is that a bump?โ, on a photo of Scarlett and Colin on Instagram, one eagle-eyed observer replied, โProb not. Itโs a very unforgiving fabric and sheโs not a size 2. I like it on her though!โ
Another commented: โYโall have to stop assuming women are pregnant because their stomach isnโt flat. Maybe sheโs just happy and doesnโt have to be so fit for so many roles.โ
A fourth person simply added: โLooks like lunch.โ

Scarlett also wore a $2.1 million pair of diamond earrings.
(Credit: Getty)
In many ways, we have made progressive leaps and bounds in our commentary surrounding red carpet coverage, particularly during award show season.
We no longer only ask women about which designer they are wearing, instead of interesting, meaty questions about their work.
There is now a greater variety of skin colours and body shapes on the red carpet, thanks to A-list stars like Rebel Wilson, Melissa McCarthy and This Is Usโ Chrissy Metz, although we still have a very long way to go.
And many stars openly talk about buying their award show dresses off-the-rack at their local shopping centres โ singer Lana Del Rey did just that at the Grammys last month.
WATCH BELOW: See the most iconic Oscars looks of all time. Story continues after video.
But we are still so conditioned into believing that a womanโs stomach should remain flat at all times, especially if she is on the red carpet, that we assume any small protrusion must be due to a pregnancy.
Wouldnโt it be nice if we could all embrace the reality of what womenโs bodies actually look like, instead of holding ourselves to a standard that is impossible to attain?