Posted: 3/14/07 Section: Diversions

Media Credit: Dana Larson

A closet filled with a brand new wardrobe, or spending over a year without sex, would the average woman actually choose fashion over a man?

According to a pre-Valentine poll taken by consumer products company Unilever, the average woman would prefer to abstain from sex for up to 15 months in exchange for a closet full of new clothes. Two percent of these women were willing to abstain for three years.

The poll was taken by 1,000 women in 10 U.S. cities, was unscientific and conducted via the Internet. However, the response to the results was covered by companies from Yahoo! to the New York Post with headlines revealing the news: women prefer clothes over sex.

While there may have been a more accurate way to conduct this study, the media embraced these results as the truth, and others remain unsurprised by the results.

"A woman's wardrobe reflects her personality, and they see it as a big part of themselves," said Joey Sula, freshman in LAS.

Sula also said that he believes the results would be very different if the survey questioned 1,000 men, because they would definitely choose sex over clothes.

On the other hand, more than half of the women, or 61 percent, responded that they would rather go without sex for a month than lose their favorite piece of clothing.

Carson Kressley, fashion designer and TV personality from the reality show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, released a statement with the poll results, which said "some people say clothes make the man, but the right clothes can even replace him."

While only 54 percent of these women believe in love at first sight when it comes to a man, 70 percent believe they can instantly fall in love with an article of clothing. Also, almost half of the women, or 48 percent, responded that their clothing made them feel more confident than their partner.

Pat Gill, interim director of media studies and associate professor in gender studies, understood the results to have several meanings.

"This is an extraordinary testimony to the idea that feeling sexy is very different than having sex," Gill said. "Or that even sexiness, and the sexual act can be totally unrelated."

She said she believes there could be several factors that determine these responses from within the home and within society.

"It can depend if they're in a relationship, if they're not getting any ... they're not getting any," Gill said.

Continued...

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