We've come a long way baby. I think.

In 1952, Lucille Ball announced to the world (via her crazy, whacky TV personality Lucy Riccardo) that she was expecting. CBS would not let her use the word pregnant.

Fast forward ... and I do mean fast ... almost exactly 60 yearsand you find a very pregnant Jessica Simpson nude on the cover of Elle magazine. Her pose reminiscent, if not a near exact replica, of Demi Moore's famous 1991 Vanity Fair cover.

Demi Moore's photo was groundbreaking at the time. It was beautiful and just shocking enough to require an outside wrapper. That was 20 years ago. The April issue of Elle does not require a paper cover. You can see it while standing at the checkout line with your kids, or while shopping with your grandmother at the booksotre.

Like any "first," there were a flood of imitations that followed. Brooke Shields graced the cover of Vogue, Britney Spears on Harper's Bazaar, Cindy Crawford did W, Christina Aguilera's baby bump was the focus of Marie Claire and Mariah Carey bared her belly on Life & Style.

I love that these women see themselves, and want others to see them, as beautiful goddesses filled with life. That's nice. It's also nice that not a one of them sports dimpled thighs, a puffy face or swollen fingers. Slender ankles and nary a stretchmark. Funny, but that's not how I remember pregnancy.

What do you think? Have you seen enough?

 

 

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