Do Men and Women Like Each Other's Clothes?

I'm not the only one who doesn't give a shit what men think of my clothes, but magazines and websites keep trying to tell me all about it anyway. When I first heard of eBay Deals new "Styling the Sexes" survey, I assumed I'd be subjected to an other article telling me that men hate everything in my closet from maxi dresses (false, by the way — my boyfriend loves my maxi dress) to harem pants. Thankfully, eBay took a different approach and I was pleasantly surprised.

The gathered 500 women, 500 men, and a group of 150 others of mixed gender and had them play word associations with various items of clothing typically popular with either gender. Yes, they surveyed the participants about clothing that both men and women often like to wear — shocking! Of course, that didn't stop HuffPo from titling their piece on the subject "What Men Really Think About Women's Fashion Choices." Casual sexism dies hard.

But on to the results! Women and men actually aligned pretty nicely on most items. For example, 49% of women and 49% of men are both down with boat shoes and 41% of women and 43% of men dig rompers. Some of the more divided items include crop tops (33% of women to 64% of men are into them), large purses (71% of women to 36% of men), and 1920's-style headbands (61% of women to 37% of men). That last result is unsurprising since us ladies love channeling Daisy Buchanan and men are probably too terrified of ending up like Jay Gatsby to ever approach a woman in a '20s getup. Both sexes were pretty evenly split on all of the men's items, which is probably because men usually have less to work with on the "variety" front.

eBay also included the results of the word association exercise, which revealed a lot about the common perceptions of different items. Take bowties, pictured above. The largest word on the "Women say" half is "nerdy," even though 40% of women approve of the fashion choice. The largest word on the men's side is "classy," although 6% fewer dudes claim to like the look. Interesting. I am personally on The Doctor's side bow tie-wise, if you were wondering. They are cool.

Here's to eBay for creating a fascinating survey with cute graphics that doesn't tell women to overhaul their wardrobes to please men. My message to people of all genders? Wear what makes you happy.

Images: eBay Deals