Fake Shower Scenes.

I recently observed that all legit kdrama blogs post about shower scenes with gazillions of pics included “as evidence.” Since this is my smarty-pants blog, I’m not going to drool over pics but will bitch (no surprise here, right?) about shower scenes.

You see, the shower scene is a written law for all that kdrama writers must adhere to. Any kdrama with more than 10 but less than 1600 episodes is required to have a shower scene in the beginning episodes, involving but not limited to:

a. solo male lead undressed (no other guy in the shower with him!)
b. brooding (Have you ever seen a male lead do that dorky Snoopy dance in the shower? No? Then, I rest my case.)
c. glass shower panels (no cheap shower curtains from Walmart)
d. chrome showerheads and faucets (no plastic buckets)
e. water flowing down his muscular chest
f. covered or unseen pelvic region (BOOOO! Show me the money!!!!)
g. at the minimum, a nice four-pack abs on the male actor is a must. A six-pack abs will get 10 seconds airtime, though.

Steam optional.

To be brutally honest, I cringe at shower scenes because I don’t consider shower stalls “sexy.” Logistically speaking, shower stalls are potentially dangerous. (They are a legal liability too for hoteliers.) The floors are slippery, the tile walls are rock-hard, molds and mildew are everywhere, and stylish shower seats are still non-existent in 98% of modern bathrooms.

Given all these, if you fall in the shower, your injuries are going to be substantial. That’s why for me the shower stall is the last place that comes to mind as a suitable space for wild sex…and sexy men.

Bath tubs are a different matter though…

More importantly, I cringe at shower scenes in kdramas because I regard them as forced voyeurism. To me, the constant and consistent sighting of an actor’s slick torso CONDITIONS many viewers to be titillated and stimulated by such scenes.

Ooooh! Ahhhh! Seal-clapping.

We aren’t Peeping Toms/Peeping Penelopes but we’re made to view (not through peepholes but through the camera) the same shower scene over and over again, at the most random moments, in other dramas. The hero could be grilling samgyupsal one minute, then boom! he’d be in the shower, brooding, in the next frame. Or he could be driving his Ferrari, then boom! rivulets of water would be trickling down his hairless chest.

This gratuitous and irrelevant use of shower trope REINFORCES the stimulation — or excitement — of the viewers to the point where ogling at men in their private moments is deemed a normal or “cultural acceptable” form of entertainment.

I wonder how we would feel if kdramas put actresses in these shower scenes instead. (eyeroll) See that?

Lastly, I cringe at shower scenes because, to me, they’re the equivalent of those cheesy covers of romance books. Have you ever walked through the aisle of romance books at Barnes and Noble?  I used to get startled every time I passed by the shelves of romance books. It was like entering a den of soft porn. Shelves after shelves of books with pictures of semi-naked guys either standing with arms akimbo, or draped like an accessory over the girls’ reclining body.

The covers of these romance books are doing a bait-and-switch number on the readers, just like the shower scenes in kdramas. They’re eye-candy to grab the audience’s attention, but in the end, both the romance readers and the kdrama viewers aren’t going to fall for the hunky guy on the front cover or the gorgeous guy in the shower stall simply for the looks. 

Just ask Fabio who used to be top model for romance books.

source: historical-romances.com

Snort. A naked man in the middle of a field? What more could go wrong?

Rather, sane romance readers and kdrama viewers will fall in love with the simplest gestures that the hero will do for the heroine in the story. In kdramas the romantic gestures will include tropes like umbrella-holding, jacket-sharing, shoe-tying, saving-her-from-the-passing-taxi, piggybacking, ramyun-eating, and defying-his-chaebol-family scenes.

So yes, the shower scene is one trope that I wouldn’t mind exchanged, no, washed and scrubbed out, for another sweeter, more “couple-y” and truly swoon-worthy scene.

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Dumb alien taking a shower with a towel. What the heck?? I lol’ed at the realization that his character had been taking showers with a wrap for centuries. 😀

from My Love from Another Star