When I covered Xtina's nude-knocked-up pics, I totally neglected to dicover that Maxim has a slideshow of the hottest pregnant women. It is, of course, not very interesting choice-wise. Maxim is generally boringly celebrity A-list fawn-y, only Monica Belluci is a good selection, and if you're gonna do it, uh, how can you leave out Gabby Reece? But leaving aside the merits of the Maxim slideshow selection process, I just feel even more annoyed with the pregnant-hot thing. There's the tagline: "When you're Christina Aguilera, you can pull off swollen ankles." Wow guys, thanks for your generosity in still finding your favorite pinups sexy even when they are with child. Oh, or Halle Berry's bit: "Descriptions like 'over 40' and 'with child' aren´t usually things we associate with looking hot, but Halle pulls off both better than anyone we´ve seen." Hmmm, why is this "we'd still do you knocked up" thing feeling just this side of condescending?

Maybe it's also lines like this when talking about Naomi Watts: "Naomi has always been hot, but a little on the scrawny side for our tastes. Once she got pregnant, she carried that baby weight in all the right places (boobs)." Look, as I said before, I'm already irked that now women have an unrealistic, airbrushed standard of pregnant beauty to try and emulate now, and so with this oogling maybe I'm getting het up over what's just a wider objectification net. Like, "Really? You guys would still beat off to these celebrities even though they have a bun in the oven? What sweethearts." It chafes, oh yes it does. This kind of ushering in of the full-bellied red carpet queens to 'sex-symbol' status feels about as comfortable as the maternity up-to-the-boobs underwear.