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 fiancé, the very handsome Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost, celeb-watchers on social media only had one thing on their minds – Scarlett’s 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 Scarlett’s knows, there are two ways to handle this fabric’s 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)
Scarlett’s 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 belly’s natural shape and choose to ignore the unwritten rule that says women’s 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.
“She might be expecting 🤷♀️ She’s glowing and there’s a little pooch,” one fan wrote on social media.
Others wrote: “Looks like she is pregnant” … “Gorgeous and possibly a baby bump?” … “Gorg, but is she preggo? Not sure.”
A conclusion was reached in many a comments section that Scarlett’s 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 – albeit expensive – satin fabric.
When one fan commented, “OMG is that a bump?”, on a photo of Scarlett and Colin on Instagram, one eagle-eyed observer replied, “Prob not. It’s a very unforgiving fabric and she’s not a size 2. I like it on her though!”
Another commented: “Y’all have to stop assuming women are pregnant because their stomach isn’t flat. Maybe she’s just happy and doesn’t have to be so fit for so many roles.”
A fourth person simply added: “Looks like lunch.”
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 Us’ 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 – 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 woman’s 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.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all embrace the reality of what women’s bodies actually look like, instead of holding ourselves to a standard that is impossible to attain?
