I was literally playing as a girl before it was cool in the early-00s (as a straight cis guy). My friends called me gay or thought it was weird and so did other gamer guys. Now all my friends do it and it's popular in general (again, in relation to straight cis guys).
I sometimes want to play as a guy now because it's too mainstream and I'm a hipster asshole. Only half kidding.
I've also always played female characters simply because it's more aesthetically pleasing. If I'm going to be watching the rear end of that character for hours after hours, rather have something nice.
I do get why people thought it weird though, if you think about the character as your avatar.
I enjoy roleplaying as a woman, it's not only that my character is hot AF. Especially if there's different dialogue options available for female characters, I get a kick out of it. I've always been really in touch with my feminine side, but totally comfortable in my sex/gender. But I've never been very comfortable with the expectations and assumptions about men, thus I role-play! So in a way they are my avatars, but not in a egg way. I guess I can see why people might think that's weird, but they didn't know about that part.
Listen, alright, this game is played in third person. I'm going to be staring at my player character more than all the people in this lobby combined. Might as well be something I like looking at.
And something I identify with. That's important too
I used to try to make my characters look as much like I actually do as possible. Then I started paying FFXIV now I rock a max height male Au Ra with blue skin.
I get it, I almost always create a male character bc it’s different from me irl. I think part of it is when you’re you 24/7 you just want to play as something not you
Well I mean if I gotta see some character's ass running around for dozens or even hundreds of hours, it might as well be ass I enjoy seeing. Same with the face and voice in various circumstances. Especially if she can pick the nose of a Super Mutant with a railgun at maximum range.