Would the fact that I play female characters in MMORPGs cause people that are unfamiliar with MMORPGs to judge me?

I mostly wanted to get an outside-opinion on what people unfamiliar with MMOs would think on this topic. Thoughts from people familiar with MMOs are also appreciated of course.

I'm a young man (entering his 20s later this year) who plays a female character in MMOs. I consider myself semi-hardcore and I constantly try to take on the hardest available content in any game I play, but when I'm not trying my hardest to obtain stronger equipment I'm off worrying about my character's appearance.

(I don't go around pretending I'm actually a girl of course. If it ever gets brought up I never lie to the people I play with.)

I find dressing up a character appealing since I never did much for myself in real life to appear any more than clean and mature-looking. I prefer giving my character a cuter appearance rather than a sexy appearance, and I build a story in my head for this character because I see her as a person to some degree. It's like writing a character for a book, but add in the fact that I get to create an appearance to go with that personality.

I find this fun and genuinely enjoy myself but I'm not sure what people on the outside think. Do I appear as a desperate and perverted creep? Does this make me any less masculine? Does the fact that I play a female in a video game reflect any part of my character that another person would judge me for?

I don't appear any different from any other person because it's not like people automatically know I play a female character just by looking at me, but I do wonder what people would think if they did know. What if I started dating a girl and they came to find out that I play a female character? Would they think I'm weird, or would they just not give a shit as long as I prove to be a decent person? What would other young men think of this?

I do understand I should enjoy what I enjoy and not let anybody control the things I like, but I genuinely wonder and occasionally worry about what my habits would cause others to think.

Currently I'm trying to make a decision between playing a male character, sticking with my female character, or staying female with some major appearance changes. I'm not averted to the idea of playing a male character in the first play but I'm becoming more and more self-conscious about playing a female character.