Most on this forum are from US yes? If so then I'm amazed at some of the responses here - you guys (generalising is fun
) stereotype us Brits as prigs!
In FFXI I played male, in EQ2 I played male, then in wow I played female. Why? Well when it came to looking at the classes on offer I was initially most taken with warlock - and I thought it would be quite fun to have a dainty unassuming girly girl commanding demons and wreaking havoc. Then, when I made a NE druid alt it just felt right that a druid would be female - no rational reason.
I pretended to be female on a couple of occasions just to have a bit of fun winding a couple of people up when I knew they'd have a sense of humour about it later. Some others in my guild also had fun winding people up about various things, one of which was teasing new members that I was female, and I'd play along with enigmatic replies that kept them guessing. Aside from that I was honest about it when asked but I never went out of my way to assert that I was male - in most cases I've found that gauging RL sex is pretty self evident pretty quickly anyway, from language attitude and behaviour.
I did accept small gifts (never money) a couple of times, but only because the kind people giving them would have done so whatever sex my toon was. And to round that point off I also would give people things and help out not for any reason other than that's the sort of guy I am, and sex of toon had nothing to do with it.
I never once found that having a female toon would preclude me from male bonding - in some cases that was even enhanced with the added avenue of mock sexist jokes at my expense; and also presented no barrier to developing relationships with female players - I became quite close with a few. One one occasion one female friend player asked me why I'd chosen a 'clearly lesbian haircut' - ('is this how lesbians do their hair lol??)' which took me a bit by surprise at the time and made for some fun freudian conversation as well as teasing her about her generalism of women!! (feels good when you can beat them at their own game!)
On a few occasions when I was with people who didn't know me and assumed I was female I found it interesting to observe behaviour towards me - I won't pretend that this gave me some big revelation of 'the issues that women face', but I found it did make me a little more aware of a few small annoyances, and that can't be a bad thing (in fact you'd be surprised how a couple of really small things can enhace your ability to relate to and influence female players).
/get on soapbox
Made more interesting in fact when one then considers the efforts that some big corporations make with their 'women in the workplace' type initiatives - seemingly pointless (from what I observed) forums that aim to change the behaviour and attitude of men but consist, for the vast majority, of women who clearly aren't best to understand how to change men because, well, they aren't men, so forums just become *****ing and moaning sessions that focus on and nurture individual insecurities... Men role playing women might even seem to be a be a better way of achieving their objectives... Food for thought.
/soapbox off
In short, I found that most people really didn't care or pay much attention to the sex of my toon, at the end of the day it's how you behave and play that counts (sorry, cheap point). But then I played on a Euro server with a load of Dutch, they tend to be fairly open minded hehe.
I'm perfectly comfortable with my (hetero) sexuality and I'm equally not ashamed of my appreciation of the female form (and by saying this I'm of course not insinuating that the people here who object to males with female toons, are)
In Aion I'll be playing a female. She'll be cute because I like to look at nice things - I will not hide my RL sex (unless it's funny to do so), and I will not try to 'take advantage' of a female toon. If male players wish to treat me as though I was in some way less competent because they think I'm female then
(a) shame on them; and
(b) after they've grouped with me and see the game I play they'll want to group with me again anyway.
She'll also be a priest because I like saving the day and throwing random heals and buffs (which also gives me some insight into the disposition of other players when they either thank me or ignore the gesture); and heals are in my opinion the best way to help out lower levels without gimping their exp.