I like the look of my Female character better especially if what you see is from behind most of the time. I have my Male characters and I like them too but the look is not as cool as some of my Fem.
Pinnacle
Arch light L50 INV/SS
Psiberia L50 Kin/Psi
Screaming Mentallica L50 Sonic/MM
Infinity
Arc Voltinator L50 SS/Elec
Mind Fire Kinesis L50 Fire/Kin
Flaming Screamer L50 Fire/Sonic
I really don't see a problem with it. I'm a female player who predominantly plays female characters (although I just had a cool idea for a male character which I think I'm going to make) just because I think of them more easily. When I'm talking to people in game unless I know better I refer to male characters as he and female characters as she. It doesn't mean I think the person behind them is the same gender as their character, it means that I'm at least partially IC most of the time so I'll refer to the character as whatever the owner obviously wants it to be, I don't think it's an issue that deserves a huge amount of thought.
I'm sure that a lot of female avatars are played by men, although CoH isn't as male dominated as some of the more "twitch" based games I play I'd certainly guess there's a lot more men playing than women, but it's not something that I give a lot of thought to in game.
If you make a female character then get offended at being called a woman (or vice versa) then frankly, I'd probably think you were a bit of an idiot.
There's another lady in our SG who normally plays male characters, she has one which is a great hunking tanker wearing just shorts and finds it amusing when the ladies chat her up, but normally it appears to be IC and I'd guess the "ladies" chatting her up are mostly men (get your head round the implication behind that one).
I don't mind if people make slightly forward remarks to some of my characters, one of them I tend to RP as a fairly "forwards" lady, but if I seriously though someone in a game was attempting to chat me the person behin the PC up just because they really thought/knew I was a woman then they'd probably get ignored fairly sharply. This has never happened in CoH, probably because the men I know who play female characters seem to make much more scantily clad costumes than than I do as a general rule. 
For my part I find it interesting that no one asks a male toon if he's a guy IRL.
As it stands, all but two of my characters on Virtue are male. I wouldn't say that I get treated any less nicely when playing those characters vs. my female ones. (Of course... one of them being Menopause, I wouldn't really expect nice treatment, but people seem to get a kick out of her nonetheless).
I fully expect people to refer to the gender of the character they see on the screen. When people ask what gender I am IRL, I usually tell them, "Guess. You have a 50/50 chance of being correct 
" Usually, it's a non-issue, as it should be. If you want to know ME as a PLAYER, that's a whole different relationship with a whole different set of rules. Even moreso if it's the sort of relationship that depends on genders to function. Til then, I am effectively a collection of pixels and a story.
Yes, I'm a guy. Yes, I play female characters. Yes, I play male characters. Do I enjoy one more than the other? No. Sometimes its fun to play a guy, sometimes its fun to play a girl. When I'm playing, I'd rather you refer to me by my toon's gender. I don't go out of my way to say I'm a guy, but if someone asks, I'll tell them. If it runs them off, oh well, they aren't worth my time. That said, I'd like to thank all the previous posters and the community in general for this interesting thread to read, and all their mature responses.
"If I didn't enjoy the ludicrous mayhem of an 8-person pick-up team and my eventual glorious triumph over seemingly impossible odds bereft of lucid and competant comrades, I would have left this game a long time ago. " - mean_liar
I'm a girl playing a girl, though don't RP much. I've actually had people surprised when, as playing my female character, I mention my fiancee... I can't help but laugh when my teammates are like "you're REALLY a girl!?"
I've never had anyone angry at me for using wrong pronouns. If a character is female, it's only appropriate to call her a "she," since that is technically the face that player is presenting to the world. All they have to do is mention they'd prefer to be called a he (or whatever else) if that's the case 
I have several male friends with female characters, and they never minded if they were called "she" since it's always in reference to the character herself, rather than the person behind her.
I play a female hero, and I've only said "Dude, I'm a guy" to some jerk on a pickup team that was afk for half of the only mission we did, then proceeded to "hit on" every girl hero on the team. After he said "Hey I luv those tite pants on u" I couldn't help but burst his bubble. Of course, I quit soon after, but it was funny to hear everyone making fun of him
If you're roleplaying, it really shouldn't matter. If you're not roleplaying, well, I'm probably not grouped with you. I'm not playing a female character for some perverse thrill, it's because the concept is female. I do find "romance" fairly tedious to roleplay, so it lets me skirt some of these issues.
As to the dressing of a character, it's pretty damned hard to make a female costume that is not a) ****** trashy or b) bulky (suit, baggy armor, whatever). I've tried to keep Kitten's outfits classy.
Heh, genderbending. Not a big deal, I myself play both male and female chars, and as far as im concerned, if you wanna assume im male or female soley on what I say and do, well, your the one making the assumption not me 
I generally dont get all bent out of shape about it unless im bein hit on, after which a short warning that thier hitting on the wrong gender is all it takes for 'em to back away, and i dont mean anything insulting, a simple "im a guy" is all it takes. LOL i bet its really disturbing to find out the chick you admired is really a guy huh 
I dun like to mess with that stuff online, it's impossible to figure out what your getting untill it's far to late.
::EDIT:: As a side note, theres a few gals out there that play guys too
I have several characters on the game and I try to give each of them their own personality. My tank Gladiatyr is the strong, silent type. He says nothin', he just handles his business. If I don't feel like typing or not up for conversation one night I can hop on as him. If I feel like playin the borderline evil toon, I will get my dark/dark defender D'Spayr. My main, Matryx, is the comedic ladies man who hits on every female character in the game. Even NPCs. For entertainment value. My point being Matryx hits on them. My toon in the game is hitting on another toon in the game. Some people might send me a tell, "she is probably really a guy." And? This is CoH. A computer game. I use this for recreation, I am not using this as a vehicle for dating.
Some people hit on my female toon. If they do I think I must have done a good job. She is as attractive as I intended her to be.
"Hi. You look hot."
Am I supposed to take offense? Do some of you think, "He's hitting on me as a person!" Whoa. Chill. If you do, then you might want to wonder why you are so homophobic and take a moment of self reflection.
"Hey. Nice toon body. Want to meet in real life and have sex?" Pleeeaaase. That would just be pathetic.
It's pretty sad that this whole thread had to be started.
And for those that have said, "That toon is not really a girl...." And we are not really superheroes. We can't really fly. We can't really hurl chunks of the street at gang members. We can't shoot beams out of our eyes. And we can't really run down the street at 80 mph.
When I start seein' people in downtown Minneapolis teleportin' down the street, or 50 foot snowmen on the rampage, or nuclear reactors attacked by the members of our gothic community, then I will start worryin' about the implications of role playing on a MMORPG. Massive Multiplayer Online ROLE PLAYING GAME.
Protector 50s:
Matryx - blaster
Mad Cabbie - Scr
Lord Havok - MM
Yamaneko - Scr
Cold187 - MM
Gladiatyr - Tank
Tymberwolf - Brute
Champ 50s:
Shamyra - troller
RockSlyde - Tank
Minnesota Slim - troller
Fire Storme - troller
Rough Ryder - troller
Chamyra - PB
Victory
Fyre Hawke - Tank
none the less, there are people out there that stoop to the level you just defined. homophobic? nah, i just dont like bein hit on, BECAUSE there are people who are serious about it. A simple "please dont" is fine, continue to do it after words and it becomes harasment. this is the line im talking about here. I'm perfectly well aware that this is a roleplaying game and that some people are doin it for the roleplay value, however, that's one thing that someone can easily take offense to, especially if they arent aware your a roleplayer. If you could care less, and your just RP'ing a part, then tell me, so i can take it as one big joke, and i wont take offense to it, in fact if people did this, there'd probably be less people who were disturbed by it. Once you've told me your roleplayin or just plain goofin off i could care less if your hittin on me or the warwolf standing 10 feet away.
Being hit on can be the best fun though, when my main was much lower and getting hit on much more often, I'd reply in character, in which she's 'so not interested' because she has her sights set on another character in the SG, so there would be many responses like "You're just, you know, not tall enough."
That confused the hell out of people