Who cares?
If someone wants to play a sixy argonian mage with a briarheart fetish, then why can't they without you asking why?
OH GOOD LORD. NO sixY NON-HUMANOID REPTILE OR CAT-PEOPLE. WHY DO THE KHAJIT FEMALES HAVE BOOBS UP TOP AND WHY DO THE ARGONIANS HAVE BOOBS AT ALL?This comic strip and the subsequent ones fully express my feelings on the matter: http://www.pvponline.com/2002/09/30/mon-sep-30/
Animal-based characters should not have boobs.
The Sims actually had its tremendous sales figures because it was one of those games that didn't sell to an almost exclusively male crowd - in fact, I have seen reports that it was actually more popular with women who are over 40 than the stereotypical teen male crowd. The same can be said for games like Puzzle Pirates - it's just the games that include "Now with 50% more extra-bloody decapitations!" as a selling point that tend to have the 90% young male playerbase.
Now then, yes, obviously a large number of people here are going to say that they play a girl just because they want to stare at a female in a chainmail bikini. Judging by the number of clothing mods for female characters that are made with about 2 square inches of material and the like, this is probably a notable chunk of the userbase, even.
However, I believe that a decent portion of people who say these sorts of things are just unwilling to admit due to social pressures that they actually would like to "get in touch with their feminine side" when they are playing a single-player game that is all about fantasy. If you want to mock someone for trying to play-act out being a stalwart female paladin who defends the innocent from bandits, you are not all that much different than the guy who is play acting out being the hulking brute who can rip wispy waifs in half with their bare hands. In fact, I would say there is far more sixual and emotional maturity to be found in the former than in the later.
If the notion of actually trying to see the world through the eyes of the other gender honestly scares you that much, then it's probably because you've honestly never tried it, and are terrified that you might not think it all that bad.
Oh come on. Really? That old nonsense? And also EXTRA-BIG LOL at the "seeing the world" nonsense. We aren't talking about acting in a well-written play or television show or movie here, we're talking about people creating fantasy characters IN A GAME. Nobody's "exploring how to see the world through the eyes of the other gender" in Skyrim, they're dudes playing chicks because they like to watch the wiggle in the walk.