Anonymity is the thing that liberates these fellows

People don't have much to fear in terms of social repercussions in the relatively safe arena that is the internet, no vested identity to maintain, no familial or workplace responsibilities

I think that masquerade is a form of play that is engaged that might realize secret interests and generate responses from the playmate that titillate and flatter the initiator

It certainly has a role in how many fakers dance the dance here and on many other boards and chat rooms, with great investments of time and elaborate fiction and stolen photos to sculpt and perfect that imposter persona

Alex, your remarks pertain to straight self labelled men coming on to gay men. Pretty well all of the pms I get from strangers here are from "straight men" who want to cam (wtf)

Elsewhere, my assumption is that in chat rooms most of the sexually aggressive females are often in actuality males posing as such.

The puzzling part is why the pose as 100% straight male is adopted here, as though they think they possess some "virginity" that is elusive and highly sought after, or that the breaking the taboo of gender bending role play is integral to their excitement

I suppose the illicit nature of it has something to do with the excitement... "if sex isn't dirty you're not doing it right" to paraphrase Woody Allen