I am a proud female but sometimes feel masculine or imagine myself as male characters. Is this normal?

[Anonymous]

So I am a woman (cis woman if you will) and I am comfortable as such. During my childhood however, I would always play as male characters in both role play games and video games. I would always choose the male characters which I was simultaneously attracted to (because I am straight). I would even play to be the boyfriend of a female character even though I was never attracted to women and still am not, though it was mostly as a favor to my friend who would ask me to do that but I felt uncomfortable with. Keep in mind, I was like 9 years old and there were no inappropriate actions or insinuations between us. It was all very innocent. Till this day, I consider myself a woman but sometimes picture myself as male characters to who I’m attracted to and imagine what it would be like to be them. I would never want to become a man or anything. I have had thoughts of if this means I might be trans but I don’t think so because I do not want to have anything manly about me on my exterior. I have a boyfriend and am still attracted to males and also enjoy being the female energy in many roleplay video games. But sometimes when I am around very feminine female friends I feel masculine for some reason. Almost as if I need to protect them or act as the male energy. Is this normal?

Updates

11 mo

The only reason I feel uncomfortable sometimes is because since I am a woman, I feel as though I shouldn’t be having these thoughts/fantasies, and or feel like I might be trans, and this idea disturbs me and makes me feel uncomfortable. I have nothing against the trans community in the slightest, its just that when I feel like something is forced upon me and doesn’t apply to me, I feel uncomfortable. I used to not think anything of this but social media has changed my view on this being normal.

[msmissydc]

You are not doubtful about your gender so you are definitely not trans, this is clear by what you write.

Keep in mind you dont need to be a man to show some normally considered masculin traits. This shouldn't make you less of a woman.
About your choice of characters in video games this doesn't say much and its all your own choice. As you said one argument for doing so is that you like to look at. The character you play, is what you see most of the time (at least in non first person games) so making them something youmlike to look at is totally understandable. There can be many other reasons too. One stupid reason some mught think but I played male argonians in elder scrolls: I do play them as female but tuey are lizards and I thought its stupid that they have breasts as they are as far from mammals as a humanoid race goes in elder scrolls.

[Asker]

I just get worried. I think I should’ve mentioned I do have diagnosed OCD and I experience intrusive thoughts about all sorts of things. From my relationships, to my health, to my sexuality and gender. Never (even despite what I mentioned I did as a child) did I doubt my gender until one day when I was 18 and I saw a trans man (F to M) in a movie and felt attracted to him. I wondered what it would be like to be him. After this I started getting all these thoughts and to this day (I’m 23 now) I still experience these thoughts from time to time and I fear they might drive me to convince me to change myself when deep inside I have never had any issue with being a woman. I even fantasize about being pregnant sometimes and married to my boyfriend and us being parents.

[Berethor]

I prefer to play with male character, but I heard that men play a video game as female character so they can look at her butt, works best with third-person view video game. I did played with a female character sometimes, it didn't made me a trans. Of course you consider yourself a woman, real women are born as females, and real women can give birth, to think that you other gender in real life is like thinking that you a cat, can you become a cat? so what if you feel masculine sometimes? you are a gamer, it pretty much by default makes you a tomboy. Don't waste time thinking about if you should be a man, because it's impossible for you to become a real man, gender dysphoria is a mental illness.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/sObPHx2QMY0

[TheSpaceGnome]

Pretty much everyone who plays video games plays as both genders for characters.

It is very common to pick or create a character if you think that character looks hot.
It's also very common to pick or create a character if they just look cool or interesting or funny.
As is picking or creating whatever is fastest or available just to get into the game.

It doesn't mean anything, I've played as female characters in games lots of times, sometimes just because, and other times because they are nice to look at.

Gender is not mental, its just whats between your legs, stop overthinking it.

[LimitedBenefits101]

here we go again another mentally ill person

2023 is just getting worse day by day