morolf: I think you should, just to experience the sexual harassment you're likely to get and see things from a woman's point of view. It might help you to get rid of any residual toxic masculinity in your personality.
CymTyr: I keep forgetting this is a thing very much part of the modern world, unfortunately. I was raised to respect women, and while I may be old fashioned, I do respect women in general, unless they give me a reason not to.
I still don't get why women aren't considered equal, in things other than physical strength. Maybe I just answered my own question, though... : /
I play Monster Hunter as female, only got hit on by a guy once. I also got hit on by a chick, though, but she knew I was a male. It was awkward getting a message from the dude saying "i know you might be a guy, so if you are, please don't tell me" or something along those lines. I figured i'd just nip it in the bud and ruin his day anyway. It wasn't even me he was into, but my black leather pants and the hellhunter jacket on this female avatar. I don't see where women feel sexually harassed all the time. The few i see complaining are usually women who come off as easy lays. Usually they're complaining about how they hit on everyone but then get harassed by "fuckboys." Protip: you won't find a pheonix when you're surrounded by vultures.
bler144: "I blew up 5 planets and killed a billion zombies as an 8-armed space alien, and I totally get that. It's pretty much in line with my every day experience IRL. But now this game asks me to take on physical features of a human being of another gender - ZOMG what do I do!!?!?! It's completely unfathomable!"
paladin181: I think the point here is it's far easier and more comfortable to suspend disbelief for things that are way out of whack. This gets into the uncanny valley though. The space between "totally coudn't ever be real" and "it's totally real". There's an area there that's close enough to reality, but just a little off, and your brain doesn't know how to handle it. This is close to that, and the reaction isfrom your brain's confusion on how to handle it. Is it fiction that we can dismiss as totally fun, but not real, or is it reality with real risks and such.
It's like playing a VR game that makes you jump off a building. That can be too much for many people. Some people can separate it out as fiction and woudn't hesitate to jump. Most though have a hesitation as they have to remind themselves it's not real.
This is a scary prospect, too, since games help us normalize behaviors (as Jordan Peterson points out), which is why we often hear violent people were violent with other children, a lot of young women pick up sexual orientation from playing house (this is based on anecdotal evidence from talking to several bisexual women, while science itself seems to lean towards suggesting all women are bisexual regardless of experiences [i have to mention this to be intellectually honest]), boys hunting as children have a much, much easier time hunting deer, etc. While controlling a gun with a stick or mouse in GTA won't make it easier to shoot real people, a very real looking parkour course could lead to overestimation of some out of shape kid's abilities. I don't think we should censor the material or anything, because that's the parent's job, but it is something to keep our eyes peeled for.
EDIT: There comes a time where we have to ask ourselves when the level of realism actually could impact our thinking. Those who say we shouldn't play violent video games are obviously wrong, according to the science, but they have a legitimate question based on other science to question if there's a point where something becomes real enough to start justifying the question again.