Race and Gender, Do You Have a Preference?

There are many male players out there that only play female characters and there are many female players out there that only play male characters.  Probably not as many people as there are that play an in game gender the same as their own, but they are out there. 

I know of at least one male player in my guild that only plays female characters because, as he puts it, if he is going to be stuck looking at a butt for all those gaming hours, it might as well be a female one.  The one female player in my guild that only plays male characters says she does so to stop random people from thinking she is a female.

They have their reasons for playing a gender opposite of their own gender and both make perfect sense, for them at least.  I am sure others would agree.  But there will always be those that question that choice if forum topics over the years prove anything.

I've seen a few that blasted male players for playing female characters.  I am not sure why a persons choice of what gender a person plays in game bothers them, but it does for some.  I am one of those players that really has no rhyme or reason to gender, at least not when looking at it from a gender standpoint.  I do not play a male because it is male and I do not play a female because it is female.  I prefer to play the characters I believe have the best animated movement, or are the size closest to what I like on my screen.

When thinking about this the other day it occurred to me that there really is a pattern, somewhat, to which races I play which gender with and I thought it was interesting.  Not sure of it means anything really, but while I play both male and female characters there are certain races which I only play the male version and others where I only play the female version.

I've noticed that the large races, Tauren, Draenei, and Pandaren I do not play the male version of.  I tend to like the female models of those races better.  When it comes to the small races, Dwarf, Gnome and Goblin I end up playing only the male versions of them.  All other races I have both male and females versions of them and play them.  But those races seem to be ones I play a specific gender of.

While it is true I do have a male tauren paladin and a male draenei monk, both those characters remain mostly unplayed.  I also have a female goblin priest, but she too has not been played since she was made after goblins were introduced.  All those characters where made, leveled a little bit and then basically left to rot.  One day they will find their way to deletion as I look to make more characters, being I am at my 50 limit.

I can understand why on the large races I choose to play the female version, because they are smaller.  I do not like the movement of the larger body frames nor do I like the large bodies in general.  I don't really understand why all the smaller races I usually roll a male however.  Never even noticed it until I thought about the topic a little bit.

Do you have a preference to which gender it you?  Does it change based on race?  Do you always play the gender that matches your own?  Do you always play the opposite gender?  Do you pick and choose them or do you have certain "rules" to races and gender like I do?