A Woman Claimed This "Luxury" Home Feature Is Sexist After Finding It In Her Hotel Room, And Millions Agreed With Her
Raise your hand if you've been personally victimized by one of these bad boys. Oh, wow, everyone's hands are raised?!
It looks luxurious at first, of course — a shower that mimics rainfall by having the shower head mounted on the ceiling, allowing the water to cascade over you from above. They've become ubiquitous with luxury, but one person (or millions of people, as it turns out) are in strong opposition.
Abbey Humphreys, a real estate finance marketing professional and content creator, took to TikTok this past December to document her detest for the bathroom fixture haunting every resort, home remodel, and luxury apartment building: the omnipresent rain shower.
Like I said, they sound like they'd make for a spa-worthy experience right in your own home. However, as Abbey points out, reality is a little less picturesque.
"Whoever the fuck decided that rain showers were the end-all-be-all of style and design, I take umbrage with you, I have beef with you," Abbey begins in the video. "Because you hate women, you're anti-women, and I'll tell you why."
"Have you ever walked into a space and thought to yourself, 'A man designed this?' Let’s use a bathroom as an example — a distinct lack of a hook for your bag and jacket, no shelving or sink space on which to place your things, terrible overhead lighting and nowhere appropriate to get ready, and, perhaps, a fucking rain shower," Abbey told BuzzFeed. "These design choices are so clearly executed by men and tailored to men, who carry less things on their person, don’t need as much space to get ready, and don’t mind being waterboarded by a fucking rain shower."
Her reasons are two-fold. "One, I don't wash my hair every time I shower, and I feel that there are many women who agree," Abbey says.
Abbey Humphreys / TikTok / Via tiktok.com
She then demonstrates the all too familiar experience of trying not to get your hair wet when there is literally water falling from the ceiling.
Abbey Humphreys / TikTok / Via tiktok.com
Her second reason? "I also don't wanna feel like I'm getting fucking waterboarded every single time I take a shower. It's immersive. I can't breathe," she says in the video before demonstrating the also all too familiar experience of water entering every orifice of your head while you shower.
"What is this? Is this male-centric design, or is it just a fad? 'Cause I need them out of my life, I need them out of my fucking face," Abbey says. She told BuzzFeed that she recorded the video upon finding a rain shower in her Mexico City hotel room. It's gained 4.5 million views and thousands of comments.
"Funnily enough, my boyfriend is in hotel development. As we travel together, I have been taking it upon myself to show him just what 'male-centric' design entails. To his credit, his head of design is a woman, and therefore, his hotels are more outfitted for the female experience. That being said, I have been ranting to him about rain showers since I first stepped foot into his home and realized he had one. I have not showered there, barring emergency situations, since we started dating," Abbey told BuzzFeed. "Therefore, when we arrived in Mexico City, and I saw a rain shower staring back at me from the hotel bathroom, I had had enough. I made the video shortly thereafter."
"Every time you walk into some shitty little shiplap fucking Airbnb, you better believe it's gonsta have a rain shower," she says. "And this is listed as a benefit, as a perk, as an amenity. 'Rain shower!' You and your rain shower?"
You can watch the full video here.
Abbey is far from the only one with a grudge against rain showers. She got comments like this one: "You get water boarded yet somehow so many parts don't get the water."
Many added that the water pressure from rain shower heads leaves something to be desired, like the commenter who wrote that it's "so low I feel like I'm not actually getting clean." Someone else wrote that the "lack of water pressure makes it impossible to actually wash long hair."
Certain tasks become unreasonably difficult in a rain shower, some chimed in. "It's also SO HARD to clean your lady bits," one person wrote. "I can't just prop up a leg because the water is coming from directly above me instead of at an angle!"
One of the biggest gripes, though, was that you often have no additional option besides the rain shower, negating the promised "luxury" experience.
"As to why rain showers have become synonymous with high-brow design, I haven't a clue," Abbey told BuzzFeed. "I suppose that they align with the modern design style of clean lines and sharp edges, a design style I have not particularly taken to (not because feminism, but because ugly)."
"That being said, I think that women, traditionally, spend more time in the bathroom, and as such, should be heavily, if not singularly, taken into account in the design and layout structure of a bathroom," she said. "Let's have spaces with proper lighting, spacious countertops, multiple mirrors, hooks for towels, bags, clothing, etc., and a shower head that is conducive to the female experience."
Abbey realizes that this is what some might call a "champagne problem" and gets where they're coming from. "However, I do believe that such design choices are a symptom of a larger problem," she told BuzzFeed. "Spaces are designed with only half of the population in mind!"
Have strong opinions about rain showers, too? Air your grievances (or defend your position) in the comments.
