As you walk through a co-ed college dormitory, you begin to notice some obvious differences between the boys’ and girls’ dorm rooms. These differences even stem as far as how the two groups deal with roommate issues.
A very distinct difference, that everyone seems to be quick to blurt out, is the issue of odor. It is funny how you could be walking down the boys’ hall, holding your breath to protect yourself from the stale pizza, dirty dishes, sweaty socks and mold smell, and then turn the corner into the girls’ section and receive relief from the fresh scent of flowers and candles.
“It reeks of too much cologne and crusted beer in the boys hall,” said Ledges resident Meaghan Lamothe.
But boys don’t seem to mind the attack, they even agree.
“Their [girls’] rooms always smell so much nicer, and they seem so ‘homey’,” said freshman Dan Partelow.
Partelow said he would rather hang out in a girl’s room than a boy’s room.
His roommate Bill Gough, however, said he would take a guy’s room any day over the comfy feel of girls.
“You can spill stuff and be messy in a guy’s room and not feel bad,” said Gough. “You couldn’t do that in a girl’s room.”
It is amazing how easy it is to tell the difference of the rooms by justing walking down the hall. Decorating starts outside the room and usually keeps a continuous feel throughout the room.
From sweet smelling flowers to Posters of Vin Diesel flexing his muscles, girls tend to put more effort into creative designs.
Boys tend to have the common naked models and beer logos pasting their entryway. Not to mention the obscene gestures drawn on by hand.
Girls seem to care a little more about matching color schemes throughout the room as well. As for the boys, they have darker colors like black, blue and greens, which by chance may actually match.
Although Ledges resident Nicole Sellers said she has seen a few nice boys’ rooms that look as though the colors matched, she said she still wonders who really decorated the room.
“I was actually impressed by some of the guys’ rooms,” said Sellers. “Their moms must have called each other before they came and planned things out.”
Gough felt there was no need for all that matching, though.
“No one notices that stuff anyway,” he said.
But differences in rooms do not stop on the surface. In general, people have stereotypes as to which sex would have roommate issues. It is assumed that girls would have more issues because many people generalize that girls are petty and in constant competition, which could be true to some degree.
But boys are not always the laid back, take care of their own problems, kind of people everyone assumes.
“Last year I had co-ed rooms and I expected to be dealing with girls more, over stupid stuff probably, but my issues were with the guys,” said Deirdre Boylan, a residential assistant, who has worked with both girls and guys. “In my experience, the girls can handle issues better and it is the boys who complain. I do not know if the girls are just used to dealing with issues with other girls and maybe boys have never had to before, who knows.”
The boys from Ledges 319 felt the opposite though. They said if they had roommate issues they would deal with them on their own.
The girls from 355 actually claimed the same.
Boylan said it usually depends on how serious the issue is, and the kind of people living together.