History Main / BathOfPoverty

* A closeup shows ''ComicBook/{{Fray}}'' having a shower, then a wider shot shows she's standing halfway up a building under a broken water pipe with her feet planted on either side of an air shift.

* ''Film/AntMan'' when Scott Lang first activates the [=Ant-Man=] shrinking suit he stole from Hank Pym's house he does so in the bathroom of his really horrible apartment which has a grimy bath and shower to really illustrate the only place he can afford to rent as an out of work ex-convict (even one who was imprisoned for an honorable Robin Hood like white-collar crime) is not very nice at all.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Priscilla Asagiri from ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'' has an AwkwardlyPlacedBathtub clumped into the semi-truck trailer that she lives in.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''CryBaby'' - when the title character's scroungy but good-hearted rockabilly family's home is visited, paterfamilias Iggy Pop is seen bathing in a little metal tub in the yard.

* ''Film/K20LegendOfTheMask'': When Duchess Yoko is bathing in Genji and Kikuko's home, she keeps asking if they have a shower and shampoo, the sort of thing that the poor circus performers are not be able to afford. They don't even know what shampoo ''is''.
* A downplayed example pops up in ''Film/{{Quadrophenia}}'' when we see the protagonist going to a public bathhouse to rent a tub instead of bathing at home. This was common for working-class families in Britain until well into the 1970s.
* ''Film/Moonlight2016'': Early on, Chiron is shown heating water over the stove and using dish detergent for his bath because his mother can't afford hot running water or bath soap.
* One of the more famous scenes in ''Film/{{Gummo}}'' involves Solomon eating a meagre dinner in a bathtub full of nasty-looking water. It drives home how inescapable the poverty and squalor of his hometown is.
* ''Film/AntMan'' when Scott Lang first activates the [=Ant-Man=] shrinking suit he stole from Hank Pym's house he does so in the bathroom of his really horrible apartment which has a grimy bath and shower to really illustrate the only place he can afford to rent as an out of work ex-convict (even one who was imprisoned for an honorable Robin Hood like white-collar crime) is not very nice at all.

* Harry Dresden of the ''Literature/DresdenFiles'' isn't ''that'' poor -- most of the time anyway -- but he can't have a water heater because of [[WalkingTechbane his problem with electricity]], so he has to make do with cold showers. He's grown used to this, but he occasionally really misses them. [[spoiler: When she's living in his head, one of the things Lash does is manipulate his senses so he feels hot water.]]
* In the ''Literature/PhryneFisher'' novels, Phryne loves luxuriating in long hot baths. This is because in her poverty-stricken childhood, she often had to take what she refers to as 'cat baths': standing a basin and wiping herself down with damp flannel.

* Inverted in ''Series/RobinHood'' when Much is temporarily made an Earl he gets to have a bath smelling of flowers.
* ''Series/HappyEndings''. The apartment is big but the shower alternates between hot, cold, and brown water.
--> '''Max:''' Dave, it's a shower bud, it's not that hard. Let the water run for six seconds, jump in, you got at least thirty seconds of decent temperate water, quarter turn yourself to avoid the initial rust blast, go back in for another thirty seconds. It's like he never showered before.

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' In the episode "The Shower Head", low flow showerheads are installed to save money on water, driving Jerry and Kramer crazy.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' is shown to bathe in waterfalls whenever possible, since he's effectively broke and homeless. Doesn't make it any less enjoyable for him [[MrFanservice or us]].

* In ''LightNovel/AmagiBrilliantPark'', BathingBeauty Isuzu Sento's apartment doesn't have a bathroom so she had put a clawfoot bathtub in her kitchen that is filled by a hose connected to the sink so she can easily keep up with her 3 baths a day that keep her alive.

Subtrope of ShowerScene. Might employ the FlushingToiletScreamingShower, in more modern works. Might also be used to set up a DoItYourselfPlumbingProject plotline in a comedic work.

* A ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fic by Creator/AAPessimal sees a dirty, muddy and disgruntled Angua von Überwald steeling herself to face a shower at the City Watch base on Pseudopolis Yard. Being a werewolf, she is not comfortable with the idea of any sort of B.A.T.H., which her [[SnarkKnight colleague]] Sally von Humperdinck takes advantage of. And the shower itself is rudimentary: gravity-fed by water draining down from a tank on the upper floor. Angua's discomfort is intensified by the presence of a male bathroom attendant. Admittedly a male Troll, but still...

* ''Film/WithnailAndI'' has an extended establishing scene of the two [[StarvingArtist Starving Out-of-work Actor]] main characters talking casually, while one is bathing and attempting to shave in a tiny, stained and cracked bathtub in the middle of the floor. In addition to being a horrible and nonfunctional piece of bathroom furniture, it establishes that they don't even own a bathroom.

* A downplayed example pops up in ''Film/{{Quadrophenia}}'', when we see the protagonist going to a public bath-house to rent a tub instead of bathing at home. This was common for working-class families in Britain until well into the 1970s.

* In ''Literature/DannyTheChampionOfTheWorld'', a bath of poverty is described, and Danny thinks it probably gets him cleaner than a proper bath, because he doesn't end up sitting in his own dirty water.

* Harry Dresden of the ''Literature/DresdenFiles'' isn't ''that'' poor -- most of the time anyways -- but he can't have a water heater because of [[WalkingTechbane his problem with electricity]], so he has to make do with cold showers. He's grown used to this, but he occasionally really misses them. [[spoiler: When she's living in his head, one of the things Lash does is manipulate his senses so he feels hot water.]]

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' In the episode "The Shower Head", low flow shower heads are installed to save money on water, driving Jerry and Kramer crazy.

* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', when Earl and Randy move into the trailer, they live in the kitchen. They are told that they have a "half bath" in the form of the sink. Not only that, but Frank uses the rinse hose on the sink to shower after working out by running in place, because the shower is broken and he doesn't even have the money to buy a real treadmill, let alone get the shower fixed.

* People without time or access to a full shower will sometimes wet a towel and wipe down their most pertinent areas, such as "pits, tits and naughty bits." This is sometimes called a "whore's bath" on the assumption that prostitutes will only take a few moments to freshen up before seeking their next customer.

* Right up until the 1950's and 1960's in Great Britain, many homes in industrial areas did not have bathrooms as they are known today. "Public Baths" were not just a place to swim. For a few pennies they'd provide a bath or a shower with guaranteed clean towels at an extra price. Working-class Brits in dirty jobs would visit once or twice a week for a thorough scrub. Bathers were segregated by sex, but the bath-tubs would have none or minimal screening from each other. Whole families tended to go together on the same night, seeing it as a family night out. Public baths, as such, declined in numbers and importance as living standards improved and bathrooms were built, as standard, into family homes. Some employers in really dirty jobs, such as iron foundries and coal mines, provided free bathing (communal) as a perk of the job.