A bump here, and a very belated reply to Kathy's pondering.
I agree that there's really not that much for this Clark to be ashamed of. His public image is a little shallow, but not a bad person. It just doesn't fit his personality, and Clark has a tendency to brood and make things worse in his own mind than they really are. He keeps his public image as light as he can in a misguided attempt to keep from scaring off his public, and as a result he doesn't think that a person like Lois could take him seriously. I think once he sees the light the transition from 'shallow Clark' to 'real Clark' will be more in his own head than anything else.
