It’s not just women in the public eye whose bodies are considered public property when it comes to opinions and advice – a point underlined by a post on the BabyCentre Community, which has seen countless women come forward to share their own experiences of “bump shaming”.

And it’s not even a requirement that women be pregnant to be subjected to bump shaming: Halle Berry, Eva Longoria and countless others have been forced to respond to pregnancy reports solely because they decided to treat themselves to a large lunch.

It all brings us back to the point made by Jennifer Aniston in her now infamous essay: this sort of gossip perpetuates a “dehumanising view of females, focused solely on one’s physical appearance”.

Aniston went on to highlight the fact that, by focusing solely on a woman’s body, we are greatly damaging young girls’ self-esteem – not to mention the fact that it implies that, for a woman, being pregnant is the ultimate goal.

“I resent being made to feel ‘less than’ because my body is changing and/or I had a burger for lunch and was photographed from a weird angle and therefore deemed one of two things: ‘pregnant’ or ‘fat’,” she wrote.

Aniston continued: “Here’s where I come out on this topic: we are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. That decision is ours and ours alone.”

Image: Getty

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