Modesty Bedsheet - Television Tropes & Idioms

She does this really fast

A nude character gets out of bed and wraps up in a sheet pulled from the bed to avoid exposing nudity to a sex-partner and, coincidentally, to the viewer.

Somebody, somewhere, may have actually done this in real life. Once. Maybe. It's of course largely illogical, as they've already seen you completely naked. Of course, it's equally illogical when a character is actually all alone—although a chilly bedroom might a possible explanation.

Also, when a man and a woman are nude in bed together, the sheet falls to the man's waist but covers the woman's bust. Somebody in TV land must be buying L-shaped sheets. This version of the trope is also known as the His 'n' Hers Bedsheet.

Another way to serve the same purpose is to leave the actress' bra on (which is probably just as rare in real life as dragging the sheet off with you). Sarah Jessica Parker was criticized during the run of Sex And The City for relying on these techniques to avoid topless scenes, which her co-stars did.

Note also that women are rarely on top; it's harder to shoot a woman on top without showing her breasts. Missionary position is TV-friendly. The Modesty Bedsheet covers both partners in this position, and allows for lascivious hip churning while never actually showing anything explicit.

However, in somewhat more liberal shows, the female superior position becomes more common, shot from behind with a convenient bed sheet hiding anything you can't show on television. It seems to be a visual metaphor to indicate that this is much hotter and more passionate lovemaking than the plain old missionary position (and to suggest that the director is being risqué) while not showing anything more erotic than a bare back. Although that can be pretty erotic...

There is also "Magic Boxers/Knickers", where after a night of passion, a character gets out of bed with their underwear on.

Also occurs outside strictly sexual settings, when characters who really should be nude in the context keep their underwear on. Examples: a corpse on a slab in the morgue being nude except for the underpants, and bathing/showering with underwear or swimwear on, even when the character is alone.

While this is a censorship trope, it is also a Fan Service one- a woman wearing solely a bedsheet is, well, a woman wearing solely a bedsheet...

See also: Peek A Boo, Modesty Towel, Modesty Rags.

Examples

Anime

Ouran High School Host Club has a scene where Tamaki rises from his bed suddenly and the sheet seems to just follow him up, wrapping him much like a Greek god. [1]◊
- This is partially a parody, as the scene takes place in Tamaki's imagination.
Also parodied in Puni Puni Poemi, with what looks like a sex scene entirely covered by bedsheets, with legs randomly sticking out at the sides. When the sheets are pulled back, both participants are shown to be fully clothed and holding mannequin legs on sticks.
- The same technique is used in Fullmetal Alchemist: It was just Hawkeye getting her feet licked by Black Hayate, causing her to make the strangely sexual giggling.
In Monster, Eva uses one.
The second ED animation of Rosario To Vampire shows Moka using one◊.
Yumiko from Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou twirls with extreme speed to wrap her sheet around her, right before the viewer expects to see more.
Yanagi Sakoshita uses this in the anime adaptation of Flame Of Recca.

Comic Books

The fact that Todd and Damon did this in Manhunter came in handy for them when Todd's father walked in on them.
In one issue of Preacher, Jesse and Tulip are in bed, with the Modesty Bedsheet partially avoided: it covers them both below the waist, and we get to see Tulip topless. At the same time, the comic shies away from showing actual genitalia.
In at least one issue of Superman, Lois Lane and her husband reunite passionately. Afterward, Lois makes use of a Modesty Cape.
Used in the "Across Diamond Seas" story arch for Xanadu. Alicia modestly covers herself with a bedsheet when she comes to in the presence of the kirin who "rescued" her. (Long story there.) She later uses the sheet as a make-shift dress until the kirin offers her more suitable clothing. Oddly enough, Alicia didn't seem that concerned with modesty in the "Thief of Hearts" story arch.

Film

In America's Sweethearts, whose two lead characters end up sleeping together, the next morning not only is there the bedsheet, but both characters are partly dressed.
Curiously subverted in Amelie where it freely shows topless women (including a scene where one of the participants is dancing in a peep show, and a montage featuring fifteen couples (and in one case, a multiple) as the woman reaches orgasm). In the shot featuring the titular heroine having sex, it's missionary position - for the explicit purpose of showing her *face*, as she tries not to burst out laughing at the moaning, thrusting man working away on top of her.
- More an aversion actually - being a French film, there's less pressure for this kind of censorship trope.
  - Try none. The only country in which nudity censorship arguably is even less of a fuss is Holland.
Used in the Iron Man movie, where Tony Stark's one-night stand wakes up and—possibly out of confusion and not knowing just who's going to walk in—grabs a sheet when JARVIS wakes her up.
- Partially justified in that her clothes had been taken to be cleaned, so she didn't have a choice for a cover up in a room with such a huge window.
In the Stephen Chow vehicle Tricky Brains, his character at one point wears a tan body-suit to a business meeting in a restaurant on which is written the characters for "I am naked."
Averted in the George Romero Dawn Of The Dead, where the lighting and body position of the woman was used to obscure her chest area.
Lampshaded in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, when Bridget is getting out of bed trying to cover herself with the bedsheet, and her bedmate points out that it's a silly thing to do because "I've already seen your wobbly-bits". She promptly decides to drop the sheet.
Probably lampshaded in Amazon Women On The Moon when the buxom Corinne Wahl's breasts fill the screen for several minutes prior to moderately explicit sex scene... when the sketch abruptly becomes a caught-cheating drama, they are never again seen, hidden behind the obligatory bedsheet.
One subversion used in film ('Running Scared', 'The Big Easy'), is where the woman wears a bedsheet to feign modesty in front of a visitor, not her sex partner. She is covered in the front while facing the visitor, but the audience get some fanservice because her rear end is uncovered in the back. This might need its own trope. Hmm.
Averted in Crazy/Beautiful
Averted in Mississippi Masala. When it shows Meena and Demetrius in bad after they have sex, they are both covered up by the sheet. Then, when Meena's father's friends knock on their hotel door, Demetrius gets up and pulls some pants on, but you can tell he's not wearing underwear. Then they barge in and Meena gets up and covers herself with a sheet, and it is obvious that she is naked under the sheet.
In the movie Holes Stanley showers in his swimming trunks... probably justified by the fact that he thought they were all under constant surveilance.
Shower shorts are a plot point of The Devil's Playground (1976), where seminary students are required to keep their bodies covered at all times. Dormitory scenes show the boys showering in swim trunks and dressing under bathrobes. The movie also averts the trope by showing the most prudish brother changing at a public pool.

Live Action TV

Veronica Mars: "Mars, Bars". When we find Mac in bed with her boyfriend, the sheet covers him at the waist, though she has the sheet cinched tight clear up to her neck.
It may just be me, but it seemed like this happened all the time with Buffy and Spike in Season 6 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Subverted and lampshaded in Arrested Development by the character Tobias, who suffers from a personality disorder ("Never Nude") that requires him to wear a pair of tiny denim cut-off shorts at all times: in the shower, under his swimsuit, in bed, etc... (And yet, the fact that he has multiple pairs suggests he changes them somehow...)
- The irony is that his cutoffs are tight enough that he still frequently inadvertently exposes himself to his bunkmate George Michael (don't ask) and eventually gets his naughty parts broadcast on national TV.
- Well his condition is that he can never be naked, not specifically that he has to wear cutoffs. Maybe he changes them while wearing a shirt or something.
The "showering with underpants" version is played with in an episode of Scrubs, where JD garners some odd looks for his Shower Shorts ("For the man who has nothing to hide- but still wants to!")
A series two episode of Torchwood Features the "Magic Knickers" variation. Gwen has just had sex with her hubby Rhys and somehow managed to get her knickers back on before falling asleep (face down- she appears not be wearing anything else)
The pilot of How I Met Your Mother has an especially glaring example - Marshall and Lily some how manage to have sex on the kitchen floor without losing any clothing...
In the Firefly episode Heart of Gold, Mal and the ex-Companion Nandi have sex in the female dominant position with a Modesty Bedsheet covering most of the action, but exposing Nandi's back.
- Wash and Zoe also use one when they're in bed together (during "Shindig" and "Objects in Space")— in "Shindig" this sheet just happens to be laying over Zoe's body in such a way that it covers anything potentially inappropriate but leaves the length of her legs exposed. (Of course, considering they're Wash's favorite part of her body...)
  - Well, there and where her legs meet her back... actually, that whole area...
- The opening to "Objects in Space" shows River sleeping naked, but she has a bedsheet covering her breasts. Summer Glau fans are most incensed.
In an episode of House, the patient and his girlfriend start off the episode with a bang - while still mostlly dressed.
In police procedural shows like NCIS and CSI, the morgue bodies are often naked, but with very bright lamps directed on the naughty bits (thereby rendering them flat white), giving a sense of realism while appeasing the censors.
In the first episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, the main character appears to keep her g-string on during sex. Actual nudity didn't appear until the third episode.
On The Riches Didi and her boyfriend use the Magic Knickers and bra/Boxers version despite just having had sex.
Lampshaded in a generic soap-opera parody sketch on Saturday Night Live, when anyone standing up in a post-coital bedroom scene would take the sheet with them without even having to use their hands (it was very obviously attached to the respective actor's undergarments in each scene).
Averted in True Blood, for instance when Jason and Amy wake up together after tripping on V-drink.
Subverted in Lost with James and Juliette: when they wake up in the morning and he gets up to pick up the phone, he has a shirt on, and she, while having nothing top-region on, keeps lying with her back up (while half-asleep, so this even looks genuine). It's a shame that a mere couple of seconds later this trope is played straight when she gets up and pulls the sheets up along with her.

Music

In the steamy video for her 1993 single "Soon", Tanya Tucker is wrapped in a bedsheet except for the scenes where she's shown in bed thrashing around with her lover.

Videogames

Happens a couple times in Xenogears, when Miang and Elhaym make sweet love to Ramsus and Fei respectively. Ramsus is revealed to be wearing Magic Briefs when he gets up for a walk, while Miang is happy to drop it and show her Sexy Back to the camera a couple minutes later...and her front to Grahf on the other side. Elly, on the other hand, does the whole "sitting up in bed with the sheet pulled up over her breasts" schtick.
The Sims 2 has the Magic Briefs version; whenever a pair of Sims WooHoo, they switch clothes to their underwear while under the sheets.

Theatre

This troper saw an advert for a Shakespearean play which doubly subverted this trope: it featured a nude man whose parts were covered by a long shirt tied around his waist, and a nude woman who covered her entire torso with a handkerchief. I kid you not.

Webcomics

Used without apparent irony in What Birds Know, here and here.
Dominic Deegan also bought one.
This Order Of The Stick comic.
Parodied in Lost in Negative Space.

Western Animation

Parodied (of course) in The Simpsons, with Homer's chest covered by the L-shaped sheet and Marge relying on strategically placed arms.
- Another time, Homer barged in on Ned Flanders in the bath. When asked about the swim trunks he was wearing, Ned says that they are there so he won't have to see his own "shrinky-dink."
  - In a later episode, "shrinky" is shown to be quite an understatment.
In the South Park Episodes Go God Go & Go God Go XII, when Richard Dawkins and Ms Garrison have sex, a bedsheet covers where all the "action" is.
- In Season 4, when Cartman's house is destroyed, a beam covers where Liane and Bill Cosby are having traditional sex.

Truth In Television

Although in real life it tends to be a "negative body image bedsheet" rather than a Modesty Bedsheet per se.
- Or, in some cases, a "heat tolerance bedsheet".
  - Or, in this troper's case, a "who left the curtains open" bedsheet.

Magic Skirt

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