Who's The Fairest of Them All?

Cosmetic interests are more often reflected in women's rooms than in men's. Jennifer Mathis '87 says, "Girls have more mirrors."

Women also tend to decorate their rooms with plants, students say. When men do have plants, they rarely choose flowery ferns, relying on more hearty specimens. "My roommate bought a cactus. It's the only plant that could survive in our room," says a male Lowell House sophomore.

But if not botanical gardens, men's rooms are often interesting alone. "Usually the girls have put more thought into the decoration, but for the same reason, guys' rooms can be more interesting," says Gordon. "It's less what they think would look good in the room and more what they just like."

"We really don't have any posters in the room," says Paddy L. Spence '89, "the walls and ceiling are covered with tie-dye tapestries and Dead banners. I don't know any girls' rooms that look like that."

Mann also says that his rooms have been centered on a theme. Two years ago he achieved notoriety when he and his roommates decorated with a Garden Party theme, complete with astroturf. "We're working on something new now--a Jackson Pollock motif," he says. In addition to six Pollock-like paint dribble canvases, Mann says that his Claverly suite will soon contain an imitation Pollock rug.

As easy as it is to draw these stereotypes, many students say that often they are not true.

"I don't think you can get away with any statement about men's and women's rooms without being completely sexist," says Betty Achinstein '87.

"People underestimate guys' interior decorating skills and domestic talents," says Jody D. Friedman '87 of Eliot House.

Echoing the old adage that girls are neater than boys, Gordon says, "Guys go for weeks on end without putting sheets on their beds and girls have all their fuzzy comforters and pillows."

But as one male Lowell House sophomore says, "Ladies are slobs, too."