For me, “roommate” doesn’t at all imply same bedroom, either. I don’t think I’ve really heard “housemate” much before, but I have heard “flatmate” amongst my British friends. In my Midwest dialect, at least, “roommate” covers anybody you share a living space with, no matter if it’s a room, an apartment, a house, an igloo, etc.
I’m trying to think if any of my numerous share houses have **not **been mixed sex. Oh, yeah. One, for about three months, when I was allocated a spot by the Student Union housing office.
I vastly prefer friend-sharing to stranger-sharing though. Sharing a two-person space with a stranger would be particularly weird to me. Generally speaking I like larger share houses anyway - more homelike, somehow.
Had five roommates in college and shortly afterwards. Three of them were female, and I actually preferred it. Nothing sexual, the women were just neater overall.
Of course. Did this numerous times. No issues whatsoever.
Never did it (until moving in with Mrs. Cups), but I always wanted to because I just get along with women better than I do with men and they’re usually cleaner…which is always good.
Now that I’m with Mrs. Cups and it’s not an issue anymore I can easily say if I have a kid who wants to do the same…I’d allow them
Junior year of college, another guy and I were about to rent a 3-bedroom house along with a woman student. All three of our mothers said no.
I generally oppose room/house mates unless there’s no other option. That extends to not wanting to live to romantic partners short of marriage. Gender isn’t an issue in for non-romantic shared living though. I just don’t care.
Shared an apartment or a house with one or more people of the opposite gender several times – I keep thinking of more examples. Most of them were also friends before we started, but at least two were not. Never had any gender issues and none of these turned to sex. I’ve never lived in the same room, though, except maybe three or so times for just one night. Those passed without incident too.
I’m not at all concerned about doing this in the future, should it come up – but I doubt it will, unless it’s institutional, in which case the institution probably wouldn’t allow it.
Luckily I have never had to have a roommate outside of when it was required; when I was in a college dorm or Army barracks.
At my age I would not react well to sharing my living space with anyone I’m not related to or involved with. If extreme circumstances arose to make me have to live with a roommate I don’t think gender would be an issue.
Did it with a former co-worker when I was 24-25 and would do it again. There was slight drama, and in retrospect I think she was into me (but my social anxiety and obliviousness was enough to keep it from being awkward), but the year lease went well and we parted on good terms (never to meet again).
This was someone I worked with and barely knew at the time. After a bad breakup and end of a relationship, I returned “home” to live on my mom’s couch for 60 hours a week for the summer. Co-worker was looking to rent a nicer 2BR apt and asked if I wanted to share. I got some amused comments/questions (So, you live with Jane, huh?) but generally was an ideal situation where I lived in a safe comfortable place cheaply and mostly kept to myself.
I haven’t had a roommate in 15 years but when I think about scenarios for leaving my long dormant marriage the idea holds some appeal. Well, I guess my wife is my roommate now, but not a very pleasant one.
Yeah, roommate is the standard term used in the United States for sharing a home or apartment and having separate sleeping quarters. I guess it sure does sound like sharing a room if it’s not a familiar word, but that’s what we use in this part of the world.
I’m a chemist, I would never classify spices alphabetically. They go by usage group - same as chemicals.
As for the shampoo thing, it seems to be a that-guy oriented annoyance. As for snoring on the couch in front of the TV and refusing to admit he was, in fact, asleep, we had to threaten my mother with recording her soundtrack; I’m reasonably sure my mother is female. Why would either “not wanting to admit you’ve fallen asleep” or “not wanting to admit that you snore” be a male thing? 
Went to an all-girls college, but one of my roommates later came out as transgender.
General take here: what could possibly be the issue with this?
Real world AFAIK: males very often reflect the sentiment above. Females pretty often do not, especially if the prospective roommates are straight males.
Not always, just saying I guess having any problem with this idea is more common in the real world than what’s reflected here so far and with a significant skew by sex (or ‘gender’, if you insist).
Who asked you to do that?
I alphabetize my spices, and that works pretty well. But I’m curious, how to you categorize, and what do you do with spices that are used both for, say, savory Indian dishes and sweet European desserts?
I wouldn’t room with anyone I didn’t know. I married young, so I never shared an apartment with a guy, but I’ve shared hotel rooms with male friends, both straight and gay. It’s been fine. I feel like the most important things are respecting each other’s space and having reasonably compatible sleeping times. (For sharing an actual room, in a hotel. An apartment roommate might be better if you use the shower at different times.)
I even once shared a hotel room with a guy I didn’t know. He was gay. We were going to the same event, and the rooms were large and expensive. I told him I’d be more comfortable if we could find a mutual friend to vouch for each other. So we chatted on the phone for about an hour, looking for mutual friends. We didn’t find any, but at the end of the phone call I thought he sounded really “normal” and asked if he’d be willing to room with me despite not sharing friends, and he said “Yes”. He turned out to be a terrific roommate. I knew things were starting out well when I got in after him, and found that he’d neatly unpacked his stuff into half the space. We kept the same hours, and it turned out we had a lot in common, and enjoyed chatting about the convention while winding down in the evening. And at the end of the stay, we each paid half the bill.
I’ve had both male and female flatmates in the past (and long-term houseguests in the more recent past) and the gender thing is not an issue for me. The only issue is that old one of men not putting the toilet seat down.
I cook neither of those 
Well, admittedly leche con canela can count as a dessert, but mine isn’t thick enough, it just counts as a drink. So, I solve the conundrum by being lazy and having very few spices!
I’ve also heard of people who became roommates just because they wanted to become more financially stable.
I would consider it. But women always fall madly in love with me, so it may be too much trouble.