Poor Blake Lively.The actress stars in Caf??Society, Woody Allen???s latest film, and has spent the past several days fulfilling her contractual obligation to promote it at the Cannes Film Festival.That she???s done so while pregnant has made Lively the focus of internet-wide scrutiny.Correction: it???s not Lively getting the attention, per se.Ratherher baby bump.

Google ???Blake Lively bump Cannes???, and you???ll find 1.2 million hits.???Blake Lively Puts Baby Bump on Full-Display???[sic] from HuffPo Canada, something about ???Blake Lively???s supernatural pregnancy hair???, and thousands of stories about Lively as she ???shows off??? her baby bump are just some of the pickings.Vanity Fair effectively launched a Blake Lively pregnancy truther movement with their (tongue-in-cheek, but still somewhat misguided) story, ???The curious case of Blake Lively???s disappearing and reappearing baby bump at Cannes???, in which a writer scored Lively???s ???bump level??? in different outfits on a scale of one to five.

There???s something so leery about the way we scrutinise celebrity ???bumps???- as if these bumps are entities separate from the women carrying them, rather than external indications of very internal, very private experiences.The second a woman in the public eye comes out as pregnant, her abdomen becomes an independent object of public discourse.Substitute ???bump??? for ???boobs??? anytime it???s mentioned, and you???ll see that this apparent mass interest in bump style is merely voyeurism concerning a different body part.

And there???s no way to win.If women orchestrate art-directed Instagram reveals of their foetus???s gender or wear shape-conscious outfits when pregnant they???re accused of???flaunting it???.But anyone who declines to draw attention is said to be ???hiding??? the bump.When Carey Mulligan kept her pregnancy under wraps with loose-fitting clothing and declined to confirm her status, coverage centred on her unflattering red-carpet choices.Worse still is the suggestion by some this week that Lively is ???using??? her baby bump.(How?To show that she???s pregnant and fabulous?Help her do her job of obtaining coverage in a gown-saturated environment?Demonstrate that she???s not slowing down just because as well as acting, she can own the red carpetandcreate new life?)

Apparently that leaves just two ways to treat pregnancy in event dressing: either you???re brazen, or you might just find yourself being whispered about being fat.

???There???s an awful lot of pressure on women to look stylish when they???re pregnant - and yet it???s one time when women should not be critiqued, criticised, observed,??? says Stacey Duguid, fashion writer and co-founder of Nico and Nate, a motherhood- and style-focussed blog.???They should be left alone to get along.There???s no such thing as pregnancy style - it???s called survival.???

See, all that most women want when they get dressed during a pregnancy is to feel as close as possible to ???normal,??? which for most of us means reaching for the stability of our pre-pregnancy frames.???Trying to stay true to who you are is key,??? says Ariane Goldman, founder of Hatch Collection, a range of fluid dresses and separates just as appealing before and after the bump.While celebs have the luxury of access to custom pieces, for everyone else, ???it???s more about taking something simple andzheuzhingit up with accessories.Invest in pieces that are beautiful on the belly but that also make you feel special.???

So what did Lively hope to accomplish by dressing so spectacularly at Cannes?Just guessing, but she probably wanted to feel glamorous and confident.If it took custom pieces from Atelier Versace and Giambattista Valli to get her there, more power to her.Look a little higher on the photos of Lively making the rounds, and you???ll notice that one constant is a smile.In most photos she radiates happiness, despite the scrutiny and sky-high footwear.Nowthatis the right kind of flaunting it.

Cannes Film Festival 2016:Fashion looks