Hand or Object Underwear

When a person covers up their nudity using their hands or an object. Unlike Scenery Censor, this is intentional on their part.

Can be done with men or women. Typically related to Sex for Product and Public Exposure. See also Godiva Hair and Improvised Clothes. Among photographers the breast version is sometimes known as the "arm bra."

Examples of Hand or Object Underwear include:

Advertising

• Keira Knightley's latest advert for Coco Mademoiselle, which involves her covering her breasts with a hat.
• Strangely enough, the bear in Orangina's first CGI commercial is wearing a leaf over his groin. It is strange because the other men are wearing trunks.
• Sophie Dahl did this for an advert, covering her breasts with her hands and crossing her legs to cover her groin.
• A UK TV ad involving an old man covering his groin with a full shopping basket.
• They did this in an ad campaign for Wireless computer products with monitors and towers covering the naughty bits.
• A recurring theme in PETA advertisements, since they've mostly turned to pictures of pretty women, willing to pose naked and declare that they don't eat meat.
  • Or, as they often declare, "I'd rather go naked than wear fur".
  • An Italian(?) ad featured a variation: The model adapted a pose that actually gave a clear view of her pubic hair, with a caption to the effect of, "The only fur I am not ashamed to wear."
  • Parodied by The Onion. "I'd rather be raped by an animal than wear fur."
• A FedEx advert has two naked models on a catwalk. The rear one is covering her bits with fanned out tickets, while the front one is using a flowerpot- the pot covering her groin and the two lots of attached flowers covering her breasts.
• A recent Curry's ad did this, with customers and staff covering up with electrical appliances such as kettles and toasters. It also included a sly visual gag of having a concealing TV display a large cockerel on its screen.
• Virgin Atlantic used this trope, in the form of a generic burlesque act, to promote discount fares with the slogan "We've Taken Loads Off".
• The promotional posters for Caprica feature Alessandra Torresani (who plays Zoe Graystone) in a variant of this, combined with How Do You Like Them Apples? and Over-the-Shoulder Pose. Ummm...
• The Stereo Warehouse in Seattle, WA has advertisements for their annual We've stripped our prices naked sale featuring the male sales staff hiding their shame with various car speakers and boxes
• aussieBum - JackpotNSFW

Anime & Manga

• Melfina does the hand thing whenever she's in the tank that lets her navigate the ship on Outlaw Star. The Toonami edit gave her a bikini, which makes this kind of needless.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: In the Bathhouse Episode, Kamina uses Boota to cover up his naughty bits. In the same episode, Simon's parts are often covered up by his drill, which drops by about a foot and increases in size by a factor of three or so.
  • Real life example of the best scene ever. It's also relatively work safe.
• Ranma ½: Although Female!Ranma's male mind (and, therefore, complete lack of feminine modesty) make an Innocent Fanservice Girl out of her more times than not, she usually covers her breasts and crotch when in the presence of people she does NOT want to see her naked — such as Kunô, Happôsai, or public bath patrons.
• Mahou Sensei Negima does this a lot, given the amount of Clothing Damage in the series.
• Keiichi, from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, does this in the pool OVA after he finds out he isn't wearing a swimsuit. Sadly, all four of his friends, a seventeen-year-old, a fifteen-year-old, and two nine-year-olds, saw him for a good half a minute. Two of those girls are his love interests, and one of those two girls fawns over how cute his "sea bear" is.
• Full Metal Panic
  • The last episode of Full Metal Panic Fumoffu. HALF THE SCHOOL loses most of their clothes thanks to Sôsuke and Ono-D. Everyone covering the-- no, it HAS TO BE SEEN TO BELIEVED Look at 2:12 for maximum lulz.
    • The female half, that is.
  • In a non-comedic example, during "The Second Raid" Kaname is being chased by an assassin while only wearing a robe and her underwear. She distracts said assassin with her removed robe and shoots her with a stun-gun while covering her breasts with her arm.
• Tsukasa in Tokyo Crazy Paradise is forced to assume the Botticelli's Venus pose when she is temporarily Taken for Granite.
• Hanaukyo Maid Tai
  • Episode 11. Taro does it after Ryuuka intrudes into his bath area while he's naked.
  • Episode 14. Taro, while bathing with Konoe in the natural hot spring.
  • La Verité episode 1. Taro does it when several maids manage to disrobe him without his knowledge. Several maids (including assistant Security chief Yashima Sanae) do it after one of Ikuyo Suzuki's gadgets rips off their clothing, leaving them naked.
• Queen's Blade does this for both tops and bottoms: the ends of Melona's hair form hands that are her only covering for her breasts at any time, and the Elves never wear panties. Alleyne uses leaves for panties, and Echidna uses a live snake.
• This shows up in bath scenes in Hayate the Combat Butler.
• Bleach anime episode #229. Ikkaku is in the bathroom about to take a bath, with only a towel around his waist. When Keigo's sister walks in, Ikkaku's towel falls to the floor and he has to cover himself with his hands.
• In Evangelion, when Shinji first sees Pen-Pen, he runs out naked into the living room. The only thing blocking his crotch is a can of beer on the table. Shortly after, Misato picks up the can of beer to reveal... a even smaller box of toothpicks. It's at this point she says to Shinji that he forgot his clothes, so he then covers himself with his hands and exits off camera.
• Shingan no Yuusha, has the main character owning his own personal island which he turns into a nude beach with his harem. He maintains this to be normal from his world, though a few of their girls try to maintain their modesty.
• Restaurant to Another World, has dragon god Kuro entering the Western Restaurant via a magic door. Since she sensed there were humanoids within, she takes the form of a black haired female elf. One problem though is that she is naked. Aletta the demon waitress being the only female in the vicinity immediately covers up Kuro's chest and crotch with two menus to prevent her nudity being seen by the male patrons.
• Ore no Genjitsu wa Ren'ai Game?? ka to Omottara Inochigake no Game datta, has this when Hasegawa Ryou meets Kusora Yurea while it is raining, and she is sitting in her dry limo. Kusora will only allow him inside once he removes all his drenched clothes, meaning she wants him naked. He is forced to strip in public before being allowed into the car. During the ride, he keeps his hands over his genitals before she gives his a hand towel to dry himself.
• Gantz, has some examples of this. One being in Chapter 320, where a woman after having her clothes melted off by the giant aliens, and finds herself naked among others in similar states of undressed. As the facility is mostly in water, her lower half is preserved, leaving her chest exposed. Consciousness she tries to cover her chest with her hands, though not much good it will do. A few other women so the same. And then there is Tae Kojima who uses her hands to cover her groin after escaping being slaughtered like the other captives. Natsu Harada is another example, as the girl is naked in a zoo for humans. Natsu uses her boyfriend to hide her nakedness. And later when she speaks to Kuro cups her breasts. And lastly Nakagawa Jun who is eager at meeting Tae when she is brought in as a new pet for his owner, excited to mate with her, that he hides his excitement with a hand.
• The City of Imprisoned Love, has Yukiko while pretending to have sex with Makoto takes off her shirt, revealing she covered her breast with paper with a secret message to the latter. And later when she takes him to a her home so they can shower naked together, he cups his groin in embarrassment before taking him to an underground basement to speak privately. And later Mikazuki Ruka joins the couple's team, likewise going naked through the washroom, though uses a wash basin to cover his groin.
• Kill la Kill, members of Nudist Beach wear chest harnesses with holsters that barely covers women's breasts and a utility belt to cover the crotch.
• Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, has the special manga leaflet from the Blu-ray. Amy and the female characters from the series enjoy bathing in the female bathhouse. When the water begins draining, Amy goes to check it out in the boiler room. There she finds her love interest trying to fix the problem. Normally seeing a naked woman doesn't cause a reaction from the boy as where he comes from there both genders use the same bathing facilities. But since it's Amy his love interest he blushes at her nudity. As for Amy she goes red at being exposed naked, causing her to scream and to try to preserve what little dignity turns her back to him and crouches to cover her breasts.
• The Cafe Terrace and its Goddess has Shiragiku Ono. Whenever she gets drunk from even the slightest hint of alcohol, she occasionally goes topless. Her roommates use a flower hair band to hold her breasts to cover her nipples to maintain some level of modesty.
• Kane no Natu Mori, a female elf being sold as as slave has her top in tatters, her breasts though are covered by a wooden placard.
• One Piece, has some examples of this, mostly with women.
  • Bellett who was topless and after being turned into a woman, covers his hand across his newly formed breasts.
  • Nico Robin's Gigante Fleur is technically formed from numerous bare limbs, but it's a giant naked version of Robin's upper torso. For modesty, the giant crosses its arms to cover her endowed chest.

Arts

• This is at least Older Than Feudalism, as it's found in numerous classical sculptures (Example), as well as Botticelli's Birth of Venus.
• Art from Renaissance Europe is quite notable for full-length nudes of Eve or various female figures from mythology — with strategically located veils, strands of hair, or even tree branches.

Comics Books

• Excalibur's Genoshan member Freakshow covers himself with a stop sign after demorphing from his monster form the first time we see it. (However, he still has underwear, which doesn't really make sense... and is unnecessary, because of the stop sign.)
  • That's a trope itself in Marvel Comics (Exiles did it nigh-constantly)... Characters who've had their clothing destroyed will regularly be shown in underwear — usually underwear at least as modest as some teammates' outerwear — yet have dialog indicating they're stark naked. Yeah, there's a history of Marvel editors realizing that, ye gods, there's too much flesh, and demanding the artists put the character in Y-fronts or a one-piece.
• In Secret Six, they first encounter the Mad Hatter sitting on a throne of skulls wearing nothing but a hat over his genitals. Turns out, it wasn't just to cover them.
• Kyle's first meeting with Jade in Green Lantern #86, which takes place in the shower. Kyle thinks it's his girlfriend Donna, but when he rolls the shower curtain he ends up seeing the green woman, who tries to cover herself up with a arm over her chest, and Curtain Clothing.
• In Green Lantern #138, while on an alien beach, Kyle sees that Jade has gone topless so he conjures a censor screen to cover her up, much to her annoyance.
• Green Arrow #13, has Blac Canary breaking up a fight between Hawkman and Green Arrow. Apparently they woke her up and she sleeps in the nude. After the fight is broken up, the other supers come and are stunned at seeing her naked. Canary gets her breasts and groin covered up, thanks to Mr. Terrific's orbiting drone balls.
• Sarah Rainmaker in Gen 13, upon awakening find herself naked in an Eden paradise all alone. Being a nudist she enjoys the scenery but soon finds that her long-time admirer Bobby Lane is there. Though Bobby adores Sarah, the girl doesn't return his feelings and quickly goes to find something to wear, managing to improvise bands of vines the scantily cover her privates.

Films — Animation

• In Over the Hedge, Verne covers himself with a cookie after he loses his shell.
• The lead character in Chicken Little loses his pants on his way to school and has to make a pair out of his homework.
• Toy Story 2. Bullseye covers his privates with his hooves after his saddle (and Woody) fall off his back.
• Ariel actually does this with Flounder after she's been turned into a human by Ursula in The Little Mermaid, and is immediately swimming up to the surface.
• In Planet of the Apes (1968), the orangutans demand that Taylor's makeshift robe he take away as he is being tried in court as it insults the dignity of the apes. Taylor is stripped naked with only a piece of his rags left to cover his genitals.

Films — Live-Action

• The short film Cabin 11 (1992), taking place at a beach in the 1920s, a dignified lady in a dress and parasol, earns the wrath of a child after tossing his ball in stead of returning it to him. She goes to a bathing machine to change into her bath suit, dropping all her clothes and accessories to the ground which are snatched by the child. Now trapped and naked in the wooden hut, the woman has to improvise to make clothes, using a kite she got from two girls passing and two bowler hats, she makes what appears to be a bikini.
• Uma Thurman as Venus makes her entrance in a re-creation of the Botticelli pose in Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
• An American Werewolf in London. "Mummy, a naked American man stole my balloons!"
• Hilariously parodied in The Jerk, when Steve Martin leaps from the bathtub and goes charging outside naked but covering his groin with his small pet dog. Once outside, he picks up another small dog to cover his backside.
• During A Fish Called Wanda, Archie uses a vacant apartment to seduce Wanda. However new tenants arrive during his nude dance, so he fumbles to retrieve the closest object to cover his privates. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a portrait of the apartment's owner.
• In Rush Hour 2, Inspector Lee and James Carter end up running through the streets of Hong Kong completely naked after a fight at a massage parlor. A short time later, Carter is using two garbage can lids to cover himself and Lee is using two old newspapers to do the same.
• The above is a deliberate Callback to Jackie Chan's earlier movie The Accidental Spy; a hilarious fight scene starting in a Turkish bath has him fighting in the nude against a couple of Mooks, in a busy Istanbul market, all the while trying to cover up using newspapers, hand brooms, bowls of spice and other objects.
• In the underrated musical movie The American Mall, during the "The New You" song, two of Madison's back-up dancers rip off Joey's clothing and he covers his groin with his hands... even thought he was already in his boxers.
• Innocent Fanservice Boy George of the Jungle (played by Brendan Fraser) has this scene with Ursula grabbing things for him to cover up with. It does spur an amusing comment from Ursula's friend Betsy: "... See why they made him King of the Jungle..."
• The... er... climax of The Full Monty shows the men use the caps of their policeman stripper outfits to cover their naughty bits before tossing them away to general cheering.
• Inadvertently funnily done in one of the Friday the 13 th movies. A girl gets out of the water from Skinny Dipping, and finds her clothing missing. She then covers up her chest calling out to the guy who stole them. Funny in that she does not cover her groin (which was out of frame).
• Likewise, during the first death scene from the original Halloween, Michael's sister covers her breasts with her hands as she's being killed. Apparently, keeping her nipples from showing up on camera is more important than either hiding her groin or fending off a knife attack.
  • She reflexively covers her breasts when she sees her little brother in the room to avoid exposing herself to him (in the split second before he begins attacking her), then continues to keep them there in a futile attempt to defend herself.
• In Bedknobs and Broomsticks, the Secretary Bird does this after his clothing (minus his necktie) gets blown off of him by King Ledonias' yelling. Though, he didn't really have anything to cover up in the first place...
• Done with Uma Thurman and a speaker stack in The Truth About Cats and Dogs.
• A Shot in the Dark invokes the trope when Inspector Clouseau visits a nudist colony to question a suspect. He borrows a guitar just so he can hold it front of himself, and has a pool float on his back.
• In The Proposal, Sandra Bullock goes after a towel, fighting the dog, with only her arms to cover herself.
• Happens in the first Police Academy, when Mahoney schemes to get Harris' Yes-Man Procter naked and trapped outside. He winds up at the Blue Oyster Club.
• In Fantastic Four, the first time Johnny Storm flames on, he vaporizes all of his clothing and spends a considerable amount of time awkwardly prancing around naked with his ski instructor's jacket around his waist (after doing her of course). Considering he was played by Mr. Fanservice himself, Chris Evans, there was much squeeing.
• Often in Carry On movies.
  • In Carry On Dick, Dick Turpin (Sid James) robs the clothing off the Police Inspector (Kenneth Williams) and his wife. She has only her big hat in front of her.
• In Airheads, Pip (Adam Sandler) uses his cap when he's caught making out with station employee Suzzi.
• In the first part of the film version of Till Death Us Do Part (set during the Second World War), Alf Garnett is having a bath in front of the fire when the National Anthem is played on the radio. Being a patriotic Englishman, he stands up — then realises he's facing a photograph of the King and Queen which is hanging on the wall. He's forced to cover his groin with his hands until the anthem finishes.
• At the end of Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) Pat Boone ends up a tree completely naked, trying to hide his body from a group of Italian nuns. After being suddenly deposited on the ground, he grabs a sheep and runs off clutching it to his groin. Insert joke here....
• Danielle De Luca does this in Naked Fear when she initially wakes up naked and a little while after when she's walking around looking for someone, despite being in the middle of the wilderness and having no one around for miles.
• Testing the Limits, an engaged couple Mike and Toni while enroute to a romantic getaway have car trouble in the middle of woods in nowhere. After spending one night out in the cold, they are relieved to see a cabin. They enter to enjoy the comforts of civilization, before making love in the house. Thinking they are alone they two decide to enjoy their nudity, with Toni stripping off the Naked Apron Mike has to have him chase her in the woods. Only that they are not alone as the cabin is being currently rented by Jan and Kristan a photographer and model. Upon seeing the cabin open the women think it may be a bear. Mike and Toni soon come out fooling around in frolic only to realize they are not alone and make a Naked First Impression with Kristan. The lascivious woman seeing Toni's short blonde hair, jokes and identifies her as Goldilocks, causing Toni to become embarrassed and hide behind Mike for modesty. As for Mike, Kristan gets a view of his Gag Penis, and calls him the bear...the Big Bear, which he responds by covering his genitals with his hand.
• In Carnal Desires, a naked Bonney is enjoying a session with her masseuse Mick, who gives her special attention, like sex. While he is being intimate and grooming her ponytail. But Interrupted Intimacy occurs when Bonney finds that she isn’t the only woman in Mick’s life. His angry roommate Kate bursts in the room, and upon seeing the other woman, Bonney is feels the need to cover her breasts with her left arm.
• In Charlie Angels: Full Throttle, during the Striptease Mission, at a strip club, Alex as a dominatrix for the show uses a wipe to cut off Natalie's dresser attire, leaving her topless and groin exposed, forcing her to cover them up in a dramatic flare for the audience. Dylan after being nearly killed by Knox manages to land in a pool, though without any clothes so she is forced to use pool floats as a substitute for modesty until she can asks some boys to lend her some.
• In Scary Movie 4, at the UN, a Nudifier ray strips all the delegates of their clothes, forcing many men and women in a panic to just their itineraries or bags to cover themselves.
• Loveblind, Matt a photographer makes love to his model, Channi on a table that lights up on the surface and serves as a stage for Matt's photography. After the couple have sex, they lay on the table, face down, their nudity obscured by the light as they enjoy the warmth and each other's company.
• Meatballs 4, has this with campers at Northstar Camp, two guys ride dirt bikes out into the woods each with their girlfriend riding behind them, only to stopped by two hunters who threaten them with their rifles to force them to do a Shameful Strip. The guys and gals clothes are taken save for their underwear, though it proves worse for the girls as they are without bras, forcing them to press against their boyfriends bare backs to cover their toplessness and only let go when they approach the owner of the camp for a refund.
• Private Resort, has multiple example where men and women are forced to make do to cover themselves:
  • A girl in a sexy blue bikini tries to seduce the Head of Security Reeves after he tries tell her it's too revealing. He ends up loosening her top, forcing the girl to use her hands to cover herself up.
  • And Jack while naked with Shirley in her Hindu ritual is forced to use a turban she gave him to cover between his legs when her grandmother comes in.
  • And when the bad guys pursue Jack they end up in the Wondrous Ladies' Room, where many women are showering nude. One woman in particular cowers to her back facing the men as she covers her chest at the intrusion.
• Naked Fear has Diana Kelper, an exotic dancer who is kidnapped, stripped naked and left out in the wild to serve as game for a psychotic hunter. Diane wears and hands to her chest and crotch at the start until she find a dirty shirt to wear.
• Learning Curve, as disturbed teach takes seven delinquents, three young women and four young men, drugs, strips their clothes and puts them in an electrified enclosure each with their own fenced area. Upon awakening they cry and try to cover their bodies with their hands as much as possible out of shame and embarrassment.
• Kitty And The Bagman a man his lover are forced out of their room at gunpoint. In the midst of a crowd street with partying locals and navy sailors. The couple seeing they are the attention of the crowd, cover the are between their legs. The man has sense to snatch a navy cap from a sailor to use it as an impromptu cover before grabbing his woman to escape the jeering crowd.
• Black Sunday (1977), has Dahlia Iyad being caught nude and vulnerable in the shower, leading her to cover her breasts when Israeli counter-terrorist Mossad agent named Major David Kabakov barges in seeking the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. Being clearly unarmed Dahlia is considered to be harmless, though this appearance of vulnerability hides the fact she is indeed a member of the terrorist cell.
• Birds in Paradise (1984), a family is robbed in their own home by a couple. They are all stripped and forced to stand naked as they are held in duress, the men and women attempting to find some modesty by covering their genitals.
• Kinky Killers (2007) has a Dean a patient of Dr. Jill Kessey having sex with her patient Dean Zimmer, when they are interrupted by two cops. Both are naked, and while Jill doesn't care, Dean tries to hide his crotch with his hands.
• Real Blonde, has Mary who was in the middle of a passionate time with her long-time boyfriend, suddenly Interrupted Intimacy, when they hear an old woman crying outside their apartment calling that someone stole her dog. Mary leaps out of the bed, despite being topless, and rushes to the window, using her arms to cover her breasts to grab binoculars to get eyes on the thief.

Jokes

• There was a man who saw a lake and decided to go swimming on a hot day. He didn't have a bathing suit, but since he was alone, he took his clothes off and jumped right in. Suddenly, he heard female voices and giggling, and quickly covered up with the nearest object he could find: an old discarded bucket by the shore. "Hello, ladies," he said, rather embarrassed. "You know, I can read minds," one of the women said. "You can?" asked the embarrassed man. "Yes," she replied. "You're thinking that old bucket has a bottom."
• A vicar was entertaining a visiting bishop, and the two decided to go swimming in the nearby lake. They had no swimwear, but decided it wouldn't matter since there was no-one in the vicinity. After awhile a group of women from the village suddenly appeared, and the vicar quickly covered his nether regions with his hands and ran to his clothes in the bushes. The bishop did the same, but instead covered his face. When the vicar asked why he hadn't covered his privates, the bishop answered: "Most people recognise me by the face".

Literature

• The Ian Fleming novel Dr No James Bond first encounters Honey Rider emerging from the water naked instead of wearing the famous white bikini of the movie and is surprised when her version of the standard female modest gesture includes hiding her badly broken and disfigured nose instead of her breasts.
• Discworld
  • Archchancellor Ridcully quickly demands Ponder Stibbons' hat for this purpose in Terry Pratchett's Night Watch when his bathtub ends up in the courtyard (long story) and he realizes that among the men of the City Watch there are, in fact, also women.
  • Averted by Vimes in the same book: when he returns from his time-traveling in his birthday suit, he doesn't waste an instant trying to cover up, but rushes home to defend his family from a vengeful killer.
  • Ridcully himself saw this trope in action in Reaper Man, when an unlucky shopper's suit ran away and he chased it into the street, with only a hastily-grabbed washcloth to serve as a substitute garment.
  • In Maskerade, Greebo the cat turns into a human when cornered by an angry shopkeeper, and grabs a nearby bowl to cover himself — thereby spilling cold pork drippings on his crotch.
• The Star Wars Expanded Universe X Wing Series features Wes Janson having this happen to him. After months of pulling pranks on Wedge, he earns Wedge's "greatest revenge" — he's tricked into a situation where he's naked, covered in what looks like fruit-and-leaf compost, and the only thing around to cover himself with is a life-sized stuffed Ewok doll. Then he walked into a room filled with the rest of the crew.
• Trapped in The Hucow Demension, has a innocent hiker named Gina ending up finding a portal to an alternate world where women treated as animals and are livestock. She is captured and stripped of her clothes by the local men and sold to a farm, who then inject her with something that causes Breast Expansion to produce milk. Gina finds an opportunity to escape her stall when the guards forget to lock her in place. Her breasts being so massive make her realize that even with using her hand she won't be able to support them when she makes a run for it. So she improvises, grabbing a leather lead and loop in around her breasts and connecting both ends around her neck to produce a bondage bra that keeps her girls supported.
• Nude in Space, Ann and Kikori who are part of a nudist colony established on an alien planet. Ann for awhile uses a g alert to cover her breasts for a time. Then for Kikori, while running without clothes, there's no support for her breasts, thus she developed a method of putting her hands over her breasts while jogging as while its makes her look ridiculous, it allows Kikori to have her morning run.
• Pets Trilogy has several examples where humans try to maintain their modesty in spite of being forced into the role of subservient pets or forced to wear objects that barely amount to clothes to cover their nudity:
  • A blonde woman who after being abducted by the giant aliens, found herself naked and in a cell. Held captive for a few moths, the pet store employees categorize her as a high-maintenance pet, being high strung, quick to temper which she displayed in her resistant to being broken as a pet. However it made her predictable and the giants were keen to see that she was untrustworthy and only made shows of obedience. Though she was making shows of appeasing her captors. To maintain some control of her decency, the woman took to sitting in the corner of her cage, hugging her knees to her chest. If that was not enough for privacy she would turn her back to the cage door.
  • Judy Baker being named Pani, found herself trying to cover her ass to prevent her owner from punishing her with spanking.
  • And then there was an example of a black skinned human beauty whose female owner, led by the hips via a chastity belt harness. She was naked only wearing a black leather harness decoarted by dozens of thinly looped chains attached to rings that pierced the woman's nipples.
• The Hunters by Demetrius Sherman, has a bunch of extreme animal activists holding a TV crew for a hunting show hostage. They forced the two women and three men to strip. Once naked the female hunter Barbara Dale tries covering herself up with one hand over her breasts and the other on her pubic area. The men in the crew do the same for their pubic areas.
• The Last Resort by Hunter Blackwell, has Emma coming to a nudist resort as a first timer. After stepping out of the changing room and in public she self-consciously crosses her arms over her chest to cover herself. Though she gains confidence to walk naked especially when a Zombie Apocalypse occurs, and decides to do a Shameless Fanservice Girl for the duration of the crisis.
• Pet by Asher Ellis, has Raymond Phillips who was aa death row convict accused of killing his girlfriend and child. However he was framed by a German man named Stefan who specially used his influence to fake Ray's death so he could make him into a human dog named Kaiser. The man is depraved as he lets his own 10 year daughter see the abused nude man forced to live as a pet. Ray not yet lost as a beast tries to preserve Amelia's innocence and conceal his crotch.

Live-Action TV

• Neighbours has Elly Conway a teacher getting her shirt dirty due to students acting stupid. So she goes to shower in the high school shower, and ends up getting her clothes stolen while washing up in showering, Luckily she uses a school banner to cover her body to get back to the teacher's lounge.
• Gabriela (2012), the couple Gabriela and Nacib are subjected to Shameful Strip by the jealous colonel, the two are forced to be paraded in the nude. At first the couple cover their own genitals, and also each other while the town come to gawk and take amusement in their nakedness. While they feel humiliated the couple eventually embrace their nudity and Nacib proudly carries Gabriela bridal style.
• Harriet Hayes of Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip gets caught topless in her dressing room by some of the men and covers up her breasts with her arm.
• Sarah Michelle Gellar and Will Ferrell ("Not too much, though. This ain't no queer magazine.") spoofed this in a Saturday Night Live sketch for "Holding Your Own Boobs" magazine. SMG was actually topless during rehearsals. A couple photos made their way to the Internet.
• In one episode of Mr. Bean, the title character got locked out of his hotel room naked, and is forced to navigate the building wearing signs. Amusingly, the sign he wears over his genitals reads "Private" and the sign over his bottom reads "Exit". In the same episode, he loses those signs later, only to replace them with "Out of Order" and "No Entry" respectively. And beforehand, he covered his front with a fire extinguisher.
• Mash
  • A very early episode has Hawkeye bet Trapper that he could walk stark naked into the mess tent and everyone in camp would be too bored to notice. Hawkeye manages to cross the compound wearing only a hat and boots via a creative camera setup with soldiers carrying long planks between Alda and the camera. Once in the mess tent he manages to stand in line and get some food before someone notices and drops their tray. He then backs out using an army tray to cover himself.

Trapper(laughing) Pay up! 50 bucks! Hawkeye(covering himself with the tray) You'll have to wait, I left my pockets in the Swamp.

• • Once, Hawkeye manages to get B.J. good: Beej wakes up in the nurses' tent, surrounded by women, and completely naked in bed; he tries to grab the sheets, but they're nailed in place. Finally, he gets a pillow and covers his more interesting bits with it, then backs out of the tent... to a full waiting audience.
  • Another episode has Margaret stealing Hawkeye and B.J.'s clothes while they are in the shower. They have to leave the shower tent with "Their heads held high, and their hands held low".
  • One of the film's most famous scenes was of a showering Hot Lips doing this when Hawkeye and Trapper exposed her in full view of the entire base. Without that bit of history, the TV series simply painted Burns and Houlihan as intolerant. Which they were, but in the film their bitterness was somewhat justified.
• Saturday Night Live had a series of sketches starring Rob Schneider as the "Sensitive Naked Man". The basic plot of each sketch is Rob, holding an object or objects fitting the situation over his nether regions, trying to get some other character to open up to him so he can figure out why they're so uncomfortable. Of course, it's never just because he never wears clothes.
• In The Young Ones, Neil runs into the room wearing a T-shirt and holding a strategically placed flowerpot to angrily confront the others. It escalates until he is about to hit Rik with a kettle held in both hands overhead, when Rik says, "Neil! How are you keeping that flower pot up??" He drops the kettle, grabs the pot and flees for the stairs.
• Chris in Skins does the hand variant when he gets locked out of his own house naked.
• Being Human:
  • George does this after stripping naked before his werewolf transformations. The Real Life reason for this is that George is Jewish while Russel Tovey... Isn't.
  • Mocked in the second season:

Daisy: Ah, that's sweet. You might tear someone's throat out but God forbid anyone should see your winky.

• Scrubs
  • J.D. is caught doing the naked chicken dance by Dr. Cox. Instinctively, he grabs the nearest object he can reach to cover up his privates — which unfortunately turns out to be a picture of Cox's son. Given Cox's (understandable) anger, J.D. switches it with a different picture... that turns out to be of Dr. Cox.
  • A subversion occurs in another episode with the guest-character Molly Clock; she covers her breasts with her arms even though she's wearing clothes, because she wants the men to whom she's talking to pay attention to her words, not her body.
• The Naked Trucker And T Bones Show would serve as one of the best examples of this, were it still around. A fine case of Exactly What It Says on the Tin, it's a show about two guys, T-Bones (played by David Koechner) and the nameless Naked Trucker (played by the incomparable Dave "Gruber" Allen, everyone's favorite guidance counselor). Naked Trucker is never seen wearing more than a baseball cap, boots, and a guitar.
• Will Truman of Will and Grace got to do this with a book and a sofa pillow in an episode when Grace has temporarily moved out of his apartment but keeps dropping in unannounced. ("Remind me to buy you a bookmark.")
• Teri Hatcher does this with a potted plant in Desperate Housewives. Rumor has it that she started out with the idea to "just get this one out of our system" and went naked before the cameras started rolling. And also by the nanny Claire who after doing laundry for the Scavo family tosses her clothes in as well. Naked she cups her chest for support to hopefully sneak back to her room but Tom sees her.
• On NCIS, a stray iguana startles Tony awake, and Gibbs and Kate come running, guns drawn, at his startled outcry. As soon as they realize it's not a threat, the others turn to Tony (who'd been sleeping in the buff), and he grabs a chair to invoke this trope.
• Angel: In the episode I Will Remember You, during his day as a human, Angel uses a tub of ice-cream to hide his groin as he's returning to bed with Buffy.
  • And later, in "Life Of The Party", he does it with a pillow.
    • No, he was just covering himself, honest.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Spoofed in "Go Fish" when Xander struts into the pool area having secretly joined the swim team, only to be confronted by the female Scoobies staring at him in surprise and some rather frank appreciation. Even though he's already wearing speedoes, a suddenly embarrassed Xander grabs a float board and a tube of lotion to cover the same region.
• Highlander the Series pulled a pillow version with Duncan in one episode as well. Only it was apparently not his doing, a female immortal bounty hunter had him tied to the bed.
• One later episode of Red Dwarf has Lister and Rimmer being marched into see the captain after getting accidentally infected with nano-tech that disintegrates their clothes and hair. They use both hands to cover themselves as they are marched once again down that long corridor.
• A Halloween episode of Psych, with David Naughten as guest star, paid homage to the above scene in An American Werewolf in London by having Sean and Gus find a self-proclaimed werewolf in their garage, wearing nothing but a bunch of balloons.
• In Merlin Arthur walks out from behind a modesty screen in the buff, only to be confronted by Guinevere who has rushed into his chambers to rescue him from a Brainwashed and Crazy Merlin (long story). Arthur grabs a pillow to cover himself as Guinevere tries to explain herself. What makes the scene is that Gaius, the elderly court physician is also present, trying to hide Merlin behind a curtain and clearly struggling not to laugh.
• Las Vegas has Monica Mancuso trapped in a glass shower stall due to the differences in pressure from inside and outside creating a vacuum. She has to rely on one of her underlings, Mike to go in the bathroom, with his hand covering his eyes, and pull the door from the outside. From his small peeks between his fingers Monica covers her crotch and breasts in case.
• In Baywatch, in "Rescue Me", Leigh Dyer while using the men's locker to change, Zach walks in on her and is treated to a sight of her naked body, which she barely manages to cover using her hands over her chest.
• Star Trek: Enterprise has this in "Shockwave, Part II", Hoshi Sato uses the air ducts to avoid the Cabal personnel who taken over the ship. Her shirt gets caught on a hook, causing her to lose it. When he gets to Lt. Ree's cabin, she holds her hands over her breasts in front of the man.
• In Las Vegas in "Whatever Happened to Seymour Magoon?" people find themselves trapped in their hotel walk-in showers due a design flaw of the inside of the shower becoming a vacuum, resulting in opening the shower from the inside to being impossible. A young couple who were doing Shower of Love found their romantic escapade ruined when they found that they could no open the door to get out. Forced to shout at the top of their lungs a maid eventually calls security. Mike enters the room and sees the couple stuck. Due to lacking anything to preserve their modesty the couple press their chests and groins to together to give their rescuer a limited view of their nudity. Same thing happens to a older overweight couple. The design flaw is not taken seriously by Monica, but she soon falls victim while taking a shower. Naked she is forced to cover her breasts and pubic area and has Mike cover his eyes to let him open the shower door.
• Xena: Warrior Princess, has Autolycus taking the pin that keeps together the breastplate of Solari to use as a makeshift pick lock. Given underwear doesn't exist in ancient, Solar needs to keep her breastplates together by cupping them or less her assets will drop out.
• Relic Hunter, in "Etched in Stone" Sydney and Nigel go Naked Camouflage in a nude spa. At the pool area several musicians play instruments which cover their genital area. Nigel being uncomfortable being naked managed to get a big beach ball to cover his body. There's also a woman using a sun reflector to tan herself, conveniently covering her breasts. And in order for the archeologists to seen out a runestone from the spa, Sydney borrows a beach umbrella to cover them and their prize.
• Rizzoli & Isles in "Class Action Satisfaction", Rizzoli has to strip in the medical wing of the police precinct when there is a possible chance she may be infected with a lethal virus, however she has to shower with no curtain. So she stacks a garbage bin a top a roller cart to partially block her naked body. And also uses it to interact with her coworkers until the virus is checked out and her clothes are returned.

Music

• This Prince's album cover. Bonus: if you observe it more carefully, you'll see that it actually combines this trope with Gag Penis.

Music Videos

• The opening shot of the Aerosmith video for "Livin' on the Edge" features Steven Tyler naked and covering himself with just his hand.

Print Media

• Demi Moore, very much pregnant, on the August 1991 cover of Vanity Fair.
  • Spy Magazine shortly thereafter parodied the cover using her then-husband Bruce Willis.
• Janet Jackson on the September 1993 cover of Rolling Stone.
• The January 2009 cover of GQ features Jennifer Aniston wearing only a necktie, but she is posed in a way that no naughty bits are shown.
• Lucy Pinder practically made a career out of this, before finally appearing topless. There were two good reasons why this was much awaited.
• The Other Wiki even has a page for this trope: Handbra
• Every model has struck a handbra pose.

Video Games

• In the Arcade Game Rampage, your character is a human who's been turned into a giant mutant animal. If your Life Meter empties, you turn back into a (naked) human, and your character hastily covers their naughty bits and scurries off screen.
• The "Naked Raiden" sequence in Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty. If you have Raiden stand against the wall in just the right place in the examination room where he first wakes up after losing his clothes, you'll see him without his hands over his genitals...only to find that HE HAS NONE. He's like a Ken doll! No wonder he's embarrassed.
• In Elite Beat Agents, failing the first section of one song results in Mr. Virus, the rival, ripping off the clothes of Cap White, the person you're trying to help. She promptly covers her breasts with her hands (by the way, this is essentially the closest thing to nudity the game allows, but it's still shocking coming from Nintendo, a company infamous for their strict rules of censorship in the early 90's).
• When standing still while playing the streaking minigame in Saints Row 2, the player character will stand with their knees together, shivering and covering his/her privates with their hands.
• In Dead Rising 2, you can play Strip Poker, and the women will keep playing until they're down to their panties. Once they're topless, they cover themselves with their hands.

Web Comics

• One Sluggy Freelance arc has the main characters use this trope when Gwynn got drunk and accidentally summoned a swarm of clothes-eating moths. A good thing Torg had Emergency Pants.
• Florence Ambrose from Freefall has done this from time to time. Unfortunately for her, since she has multiple sets of mammaries thanks to her nonhuman nature, even with the help of her tail it leaves some of her "naughty bits" uncovered. Her fur thankfully covers anything she has on her chest unless she's nursing or in heat (former has never happened, and the latter is unlikely to happen in such a nonsexualized comic) — but she still covers the same area as human ladies would due to cultural conditioning.
• City of Reality has an arc where a character is seeking to undo a series of involuntary transformations caused by an evil magician. Naturally, the people so reverted frequently come back sans clothing, leading to some interesting moments.
• Ménage à 3
  • In a sequence that begins here, Gary uses in sequence a cushion, a live cat (fortunately very briefly) and finally his hands.
  • Matt needed to improvise when being kicked out by Dillon after having sex.
• Used in this strip of The Whiteboard.
• Shown in Shifters here where Ferrah shows up Naked on Arrival but preserves her modesty through Hand or Object Underwear.
• Back To Apeworld has the African American Lieutenant, having escaped being enslavement from the intelligent apes, and encounters three men who claim to be the command staff of the colony ship that brought th humans to the planet. Mustering as much dignity, the astronaut tries covering her breasts with her arms, and requests clothes, but the men have another idea to just enslave and rape her.

Western Animation

• Classic film shorts loved this trope, especially when Donald Duck or Daffy Duck lost all their feathers. It was especially funny when a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal did this in response to losing their shirt (admittedly, their only piece of clothing).
• The Simpsons
  • From the episode "Bart After Dark":

Belle: Are you wearing a grocery bag? Homer: I have misplaced my pants.

• • A similar incident happened on "Summer of 4 ft. 2", where Homer uses the welcome mat from Flanders' beach house as a bathing suit, and ends up getting arrested for indecent exposure when he steps outside.
  • From The Simpsons comics, Lisa had to wear a Titanic Squishee bucket in place of her standard clothes. Cue the Squick.
  • On "Selma's Choice", Lisa had to wear a towel home after she got high off the hallucinogenic water on "The Little Land of Duff" ride and went skinny-dipping in Duff Gardens' Fermentarium.
• King of the Hill: Hank Hill was once forced to make an on-the-spot choice between a potted cactus plant and the Texas flag for this purpose. He went with the cactus.
• On the Mission Hill episode, "How to Get Head in Business Without Really Trying", Andy covers his crotch with a cactus plant as he's running from his boss (whom he thinks is out to get him for sleeping with his fiancée, but was really going to ask Andy if he wanted some sliced grapefruit for breakfast).
• Total Drama Island
  • Happens to DJ in Total Drama Action and later Owen in the theme song for World Tour.
  • In the first season, Harold even had to do this with a pillow. His cabinmates hid all his clothes and moved his bed out to the dock (where all the girls were swimming the following morning) to get back at him for leaving his dirty underwear lying around.
• Teen Titans
  • Toyed with: when Beast Boy removes Raven's cloak, she covers her chest as if she were naked, even though she isn't.
  • Also when See-More uses his X-ray vision to stare at Starfire, she covers herself with her hands as though she was naked.
• Futurama
  • The Planet Express crew is having a barbeque and Nibbler is begging for a burger, but no-one gives him one. Then Amy's falls out of her sandwich and lands in her cleavage. Seeing his chance Nibbler leaps onto her chest and devours it along with her bikini top, forcing her to cover up her breasts with the buns.
  • Done later in an Adam-And-Eve homage with what are noted to be "strangely sticky" leaves.
• Wakfu. In the second season's Gobbowl arc, there is a magic potion allowing females to gender-bend into males, but which unfortunately cease to have effect if the subject says the word "Gobbowl". Thus, a Fanservice Extra trying to sneak in the stadium under the guise of a shirtless male has to cover her chest with an arm when she return to female form. Later, the same thing happens to a topless Amalia, who grabs a gobbowl shield to hide herself.
• In the Codename: Kids Next Door episode "Operation: A.R.C.T.I.C.", after the KND are hit by a "Nude Torpedo", both Numbuh One and Numbuh Five manage to cover their bodies completely with both hands, thanks to the art style (giving them thin torsos and very large hands).
• In the Looney Tunes episode "Foghorn Leghorn Goes Skinny Dipping", after Foghorn Leghorn went skinny dipping in the lake, Foggy got out of the lake and saw that his feather suit and his underwear are both stolen by Barnyard Dawg, he sheepishly covers himself with his hands and hid himself in the bushes so Barnyard Dawg doesn't see him naked.

Real Life

• As a body language signal: When she's in front of a man, a woman either crossing her arms over her chest, or placing her arms or hands in front of her chest while topless is a sneaky way for her to draw attention to her breasts as Cynthia Brimall demonstrates (NSFW). It's alleged to be a gesture of sexual anticipation laced with anxiety.
  • Of course, there are many other body-language experts that say crossing one's arms is a gesture of rejection, defensiveness and/or hostility, so, take all such research with a grain of salt.
• There is a bit of a legend at Oxford. As a formerly all male institution, there is a short section of the Cherwell that has been fenced off for men to bathe in the river. Naturally, only the oldest and most esteemed professors, still quite fond of the old traditions, use these facilities. When the fence came down in a flood one day, the professors were too busy to notice. However, when a boat carrying several young female students went past, the professors flung their hands to shield the ladies from their most private of parts. One professor flung his hands to his face and claimed, "I don't know about you all, but I'm known by my face around here."
  • The same story has many versions around the world, often involving clergy. Look to the jokes for an example.
• Janet Jackson's Nipplegate, in the halftime show of the Super Bowl XXXVIII in February 1, 2004. Justin Timberlake while singing with Janet caused her clothing to rip, exposing right breast, with a nipple ring to be seen on a live broadcast. This forced Janet to cover her chest for the duration of the half-time show.