Unclear Description: Modesty Bedsheet

This trope seems to mean multiple things. Just from the description:

1. "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."
2. "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 selling L-shaped sheets. This version of the trope is also known as the His 'n' Hers Bedsheet."
3. "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 perform."
4. "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..."
5. "Even in pay cable shows such as Entourage and Californication, which freely show topless women, sex scenes frequently feature sheets tightly wrapped around the waists of the two actors simulating coitus in a manner that would be difficult and time-consuming to accomplish in real life."
6. "There is also "Magic Boxers/Knickers", where after a night of passion, a character gets out of bed with their underwear on."
7. "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."

Admittedly some of these could be merged, but none of these are really merged versions of any of the others (in other words, there's no one sentence that describes the trope), and the only thing all of these have in common is "someone you would expect to be nude wears something". There is some theme of "someone is covered solely by a bedsheet", but #3, #6, and #7 are about undergarments (suggesting this is more about "unlikely modesty" than anything else, but we have gazillions of other tropes about that), and #4 is something else entirely that only happens to use that theme. The laconic... isn't great ("Bedlinen as a cure for nudity"), but it does more to unify all of these than anything else.

My limited impression is that #2 is the most popular, but #1 is placed where you'd normally expect a statement of the trope, hence why I started this thread.

Also, the image was changed without discussion back in February (from a demonstration of #1 to a demonstration of #2); should I start an Image Pickin' thread too?

edited 30th Mar '12 11:18:25 PM by MorganWick

Did you check what the examples follow, or just the description?

This should be a simply a trope for "character covers up with a bedsheet to avoid showing nudity or to indicate that they are modest."

The ones about underwear should go — lots of people wear underwear to bed.

The whole section about the relative frequency of use of positions other than Missionary has nothing to do with bedsheets and needs to go.

It should be limited to #1 and #2

The examples are all over the place.

edited 31st Mar '12 4:57:24 AM by Madrugada

Fully agree with this. Sexual positions should be a different trope altogether.

^^ Agree. Please escort Dr. Freud from the building.

3, 6 and 7 probably point to a Missing Supertrope, and 4 and 5 can probably be combined into a sister trope.

That sounds about right. I think the missing supertrope is something like Improbably Still Clothed.

^ If we're talking about the supertrope of Modesty Bedsheet, "clothed" is an odd description for a sheet, and it's a really odd description of 4/5 (or, really, #2).

Quick usage count (on the page, not other pages):

#1

27 (6 Animanga, 1 Comic Books, 5 Film, 6 Live-Action TV, 1 Music, 8 Webcomics)

#2

17 (1 Comic Books, 2 Film, 4 LATV, 6 Webcomics, 2 Western Animation, and I guess the Literature and Web Original examples are best described as this)

3/6

6 (2 Film, 3 LATV, 1 Webcomics)

4/5

9 (3 Animanga, 3 Film, 2 LATV, 1 Western Animation)

#7

8 (3 Film, 4 LATV, 1 Western Animation)

Multiple

7 (3 Film, 1 LATV, 1 Video Games, 2 Webcomics; some of these in Animanga and Comic Books may have been classified as only one of their variants or thrown into Unclear; many of these involve people covering up with both sheets and undergarments)

Variant of #2 with the bedsheet down to both partners' waists but the woman lying face down

2

Right Through His Pants (which I didn't throw into Misuse because it kind of combines two or more of #3-6)

5 (4 LATV, 1 Video Games; some of these, especially in Animanga, Comic Books, and Film, may be thrown into Multiple, 3/6, or 4/5)

Unclear / Zero Context Examples

20 (5 Animanga, 3 Comic Books, 5 Film, 4 LATV, 1 Theatre, 2 Video Games; if the ZC Es mention one person it's probably #1, if they mention two it's probably #2, and I probably threw a number of examples of #3, #6, and #7 here)

ZCE the description makes me not want to check

1

Probably misuse (situations I deemed realistic)

5 (2 Animanga, 1 Film, 1 LATV, 1 Western Animation; most of these are "sleeps in the nude and happens to have a blanket covering her breasts", though the MLP example simply involves a character hiking the bedsheet in the presence of someone she hadn't slept with, which appears in other examples but isn't in keeping with the spirit of the trope)

Aversions/subversions where none of the above apply

2 (both Film, and maybe some others I threw into Unclear or specific categories)

Other

3 (there's an "example" that lists multiple films and describes a variant of Toplessness from the Back; the example at the end of the Film section could best be described as the "Magically Appearing Bra", the Edna Krabappel example looks like #1 but has a Justifying Edit that seems to move it to Sexy Shirt Switch, and the MLP example seems to be downright uncategorizable even if it involved humans)

edited 31st Mar '12 9:03:35 PM by MorganWick

I was talking about 3 and 6 (inexplicable underwear), and 7 (bathing with clothes on).

And I said they pointed to a Missing Supertrope, not that they were a Missing Supertrope. (What would it be a supertrope to?)

I suggest splitting off a trope called L Shaped Bedsheet for the traditional (Ebert's Little Movie Glossary had this one) "the sheet goes up to the woman's chest but the man's waist" trope.

That would definitely be a subtrope to Modesty Bedsheet, even as it exists currently. It's a specific variant where it covers what's necessary, but only what's necessary, and highlights the difference between the genders when it comes to that.

Clocking due to lack of activity.

I don't think this trope needs to be divided or any supertrope created. The idea is Improbably Still Clothed, as noted above—a situation in which a character should be nude but is not.

"The ones about underwear should go — lots of people wear underwear to bed."

They don't wear underwear for sex, and that's what this trope is getting at. There was an episode of Mad Men in which Duck has sex with Peggy and gets up from the bed with his underwear still on. Men don't keep their boxers on for sex.

Yes, but those are Right Through His Pants. They have their own trope and need to be off this one.

Locking.