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</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Growing up in an extended family spanning both coasts…though mostly suburban in which the male/female ratio in my generation is more lopsided in favor of the former greater than 3:1.</p></li>
<li><p>Visiting dozens of classmates’ rooms from elementary school to college. This includes university dorms in both the PRC and the ROC. On average, males are allowed by their parents and society to get away with much more slobbiness than their female siblings/counterparts. Saw this parental socialization difference not only in my own extended family, but also in nearly every mainstream US family I’ve visited or in whose house I’ve slept over in. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Only exception to this rule are parents who hold unusually progressively egalitarian views on gender norms like neo-hippie parents of HS/college classmates or the one elementary male classmate whose father was a Vietnam Vet/former Marine drill sergeant who expected his elementary son’s room to be as meticulously organized like what Federal Service Academies expect of their cadets. Then again, the latter’s room was also just as spartan as those I’ve seen in photos of a cousin’s room at a FSA during his short stay there. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>It was the males with neatnik tendencies and/or those who prefer fashionable decor and dress who tend to be marked out immediately for bullying by older boys and sometimes even fathers, teachers, and neighbors for being the “freaks”…whether in my neighborhood or in US pop culture. Some of this exhibits homophobic tendencies on the part of the bullies. </p></li>
<li><p>Upon seeing the room of my neatnik/meticulously organized color coordinated post-college roommate, several male friends…including some in the Millennial generation thought I was living with a female roommate. One emphatically refused to believe that the room in question belonged to a male until said roommate came into the apartment, greeted us, and walked into his room. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’m wondering if one reason you made the above statement is that you only have daughters and you grew up with only/solely sisters in your home. </p>
<p>Granted, what I’ve described above tends to be an phase that mostly goes away once they’re past the early 20s and start to become involved in serious romantic relationships. It certainly was the case with even the most slobbiest of my male cousins and several frat/Nerd friends who used to think nothing of leaving plates with remnants of meals from 3-4 days previously in their rooms…even if it reeked for everyone else.</p>