Anne Hathaway attended the premiere this past week of her new movie, “The End of Oak Street,” in Los Angeles, but online, conspiracy theorists were not focusing on the film or Hathaway’s style. Their target was on the actress’ pregnant body. Hathaway wore a blue top and low-rise jeans that revealed the bottom of her pregnant stomach. Social media comments from the event questioned whether her bare bump was real. “That belly looks fake,” one top comment from “Entertainment Tonight’s” post reads, while another on X declares, “Is this what a fake bump looks like? Why does her tummy look so odd?”In her Instagram post of her premiere photos, Hathaway seemingly addressed the conspiracy with her caption that included a peace sign and a kissing emoji: “Fake hair, real bump.”Getty/HuffPostAnne Hathaway seemingly addressed the fake pregnancy rumors on her recent Instagram post.This is not the first “bumpvestigation” targeting a powerful, famous woman in the public eye. There have also been online conspiracy theories that Beyoncé and Meghan Markle faked their pregnancy bumps or used surrogates. So why do so many people on the internet believe that women are faking their pregnancies? The most generous interpretation is that people are confused with what they see online. The ease with which people can make artificially generated photos is making people mistrust photos and videos. Just last week, an AI-generated pregnant photo of Zendaya circulated on the internet before being debunked.But it’s also likely that these conspiracy theories are in bad faith. Bumpvestigations are a tool to question and challenge the success of women, according to gender and pregnancy researchers.In the comments, people used the physical shape of Hathaway’s belly button and the size of her bump as proof that she is faking it. And this real judgment about a fake conspiracy is yet another example of how so many people believe they’ve got a claim on a person’s pregnant body, said Elizabeth Weigle, a scholar at the University of Georgia who has researched maternity wear. “To me, every baby bump looks beautiful,” Weigle said, but noted that people can hold unrealistic beliefs of what a “perfect” bump on a celebrity should look like. People use “bumpvestigations” to question the status of women.What might also be fueling the internet backlash is that Hathaway, who is expecting her third child, appears happy. When Hathaway reveals her pregnant body, “it’s a proud-mother flaunt of ‘I feel good in my body, and I’m carrying child.’ That’s why they don’t like it because it is a display of our power and people want to squash that,” Weigle said. Questioning someone’s pregnancy as fake “is a way to try to upend and delegitimize their status and power and to keep the gender hierarchy of men above women firmly in place,” said Amy Diehl, a gender equity researcher and co-author of “Glass Walls.” “It is also another way to send a message to all women that they should stay out of public roles, or their lives, their bodies and their families will be publicly scrutinized in the same way.”In this way, making people wonder if a bump is fake is meant to shame a woman who doesn’t fit this mold of what a pregnant woman should do or look like, said Jay Daniel Thompson, a senior lecturer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Victoria, Australia, who researches conspiracy theories.“The ‘fake pregnancy’ allegations might also reflect a deep discomfort at seeing a pregnant woman –– and a famous one at that –– in public, living her life,” Thompson said. This policing of pregnant bodies does not just happen to famous ones. “A bare baby bump draws overt attention to the femaleness of one’s body, which is why bump images draw intense scrutiny,” Diehl said. “For this reason, many women at work feel compelled to hide their pregnancy bump for as long as possible.”One 2022 survey found that 1 in 5 mothers have experienced pregnancy discrimination at work, and the finding held across race, income and other demographics.That’s why women styling their pregnancy so that the bump is the focal point is still radical. How singer and business mogul Rihanna dressed during her pregnancies created a “Rihanna effect” in the evolution of maternity dress because it modeled the message of “Just because I have a protruding bump doesn’t mean I’m not sexy,” Weigle said. In 2022, Rihanna wore a sheer black, fishnet teddy dress to Paris Fashion Week while pregnant with her first son, and is known for her iconic maternity looks that displayed her bare stomach and used haute couture. Getty/HuffPostAnne Hathaway’s bare-bump pregnancy style follows a revealing, fashion-forward maternity style that Rihanna pioneered.Hathaway, who is dressing more “straight-edge” than Rihanna did, is showing how normal and popular it now is for women to show their pregnant bodies fashionably, Weigle added. And yet that same normalcy might be causing more fake pregnancy rumors. Weigle doesn’t think bumpvestigations will ever die, because people interpret pregnant women showing their bodies as “a flaunt,” and that bothers people. The best way to keep the internet ablaze is to keep living your life unbothered, after all.Since her new movie premiered, Hathaway has continued to highlight her pregnancy during her press tour, more recently in a black top that revealed her bare bump during a “Jimmy Kimmel” appearance. “I’m sure she’s going to have fun with this now,” Weigle said about the conversation Hathaway’s maternity wear has started, but noted that she wishes the actress didn’t have to in the first place. Hathaway’s comeback statement about her “real bump” shows she is “being playful about it, but also, it just makes me mad that she even felt like she had to do that,” Weigle said.