What is the overall obsession with "Femshep"?

@TheRealMarsupio 

I played all three games multiple times, and while I did one playthrough with a male Shepard I did multiple with Femshep, even exclusively Femshep in the last 7 or 8 years.

1.  I am one of the crowd who thinks that Jennifer Hale voice-acting is superior. 
   That is of course purely subjective, still I think many people that played both genders will agree that Jennifer Hale did a better job in ME1.
   However, Mark Meer has caught up in ME3.
2. I don't have any problems relating to a Female character.
   I just don't see how the gender should make such a big difference?
   What draws me into a figure is the character, not the gender. 
3. I have a thing for Women that can kick ass.
4. My FemShep is pretty easy on the eyes in cut scenes.

Okay, EA, what's the official answer?  🙂

I'm with you on a couple of things OP:

1) There is some strange obsession, especially with the ME3 version of Femshep.  Personally, I prefer the ME1/2 Femshep over ME3 (her looks are far too sexualized (like NewAsh).

2) Yes, Jennifer Hale is considered to be one of the best in the VA biz, but honestly, I don't see her as any better than Mark Meer as my Shepard.

But...

I don't have a problem playing the female character in a followup play (my completionist obsession).

Since I always start with Paragon, my FemShep inevitably becomes Renegade.

And yeah, I'm afraid a lot of it is: "if I'm going to be looking at a butt all the time, might as well be one I can appreciate!"

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@DoctorDAM wrote:

Okay, EA, what's the official answer?  🙂

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FemShep is just cooler. 😎

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DoctorDAM wrote:

1) There is some strange obsession, especially with the ME3 version of Femshep.  Personally, I prefer the ME1/2 Femshep over ME3 (her looks are far too sexualized (like NewAsh).

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More attractive equals sexualized?
That is some can of worms. 😜

@TheRealMarsupio

Well, If I'm going to play as a character in a game and look at them for hours on end, I'd much rather it be someone pretty and not some ugly guy...

Plus, as @holger1405 said, she's very cool.

That also goes for my squad too. I love Garrus to death, and I DO take him along quite a bit... but I am partial to female companions also. Liara, Tali, Miranda, Jack.

Also, I'm with the others that Ms. Hale is much superior.  It's not so much what she says, as the emotions behind it. When Mr. Meer says the lines, his projected feelings in HOW he says it doesn't match what he says and it always seems a tiny bit... out of place.

They're both good, but Ms. Hale is better.

My runs are about 50-50 between male and Female, but I think I like listening to female voices better.  By runs, that is basically all RPG that give the option, but some games do tend to run more female or male depending on feel and sounds of a game. 

I personally think Jenifer did a better VA job tham Meer but to each his own. 

I do prefer looking at women's butts WAY more than men's. 

The thing I like is that you can play as you choose in this aspect and have a quality time with either.  Personal choice is important to me as long as it doesn't harm someone else. 

I don't have a problem identifying with women in fiction, and I don't role-play as myself in video games, so the gender doesn't really matter.

When I have to pick in a role playing game, I usually base my decision on the voice actor. I like Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer equally, so my Shepard gender distribution has been about fifty-fifty. Same with Dragon Age II, where both Hawkes (Nicholas Boulton and Jo Wyatt) are equally terrific. I preferred playing as female characters in Assassin's Creed Odyssey (Melissanthi Mahut), Dragon Age Inquisition (specifically the English voice, Alix Wilton Regan), and GreedFall (Cassie Layton).

In an RPG without a voiced protagonist, I tend to choose the gender based on customisation options. In Dragon Age: Origins, most of my characters are men.

I think the adoration of Femshep is not really an obsession. I think it's more of a frustration and compensation by the fanbase because male Shepard was the default option. Femshep didn't have a custom character model until ME3, and was also hidden from the promotional materials until the Femshep trailer of ME3. Jennifer Hale cried tears of joy when Femshep was included in the trailer of the legendary edition, likely because of how absent she was from most promotional materials before. So in short, I think it's a case where people are rooting for the underdog because people genuinely like Femshep and feel like BioWare didn't give her the attention she deserved.