Will playing horror games that scare you and overcoming the fear they cause make you become a brave more masculine man?

Im a guy and I ask because lately I've been feeling insecure about my masculinity & I don't feel manly enough & brave enough to be seen real man in comparison to other male gamers in my age bracket that are heterosexual in the gaming community. I'm not a straight man but I'm not totally fem I still like rock music playing sports, play, racing games, rpgs and fps games but I worry that I don't measure up to straight men who are also gamers in the masculinity department.

And I want this insecurity with my masculinity to go away.

Im thinking that if I play horror games that scare the crap out of me and overcome the fear those types of games induce to the point they don't scare me anymore; I'll become a braver and more confidently masculine man.

I'm not stereotypically feminine but I worry that other people wont see me as a real man because of my sexual/romantic attraction to other men at or close to my own age that are my type.

And I think doing masculine things will make me feel and behave in a manly way thus making me be a more masculine man even though I'm not straight and never will be. I know doing macho stuff wont change that I'm gay but i wont be so self conscious about it.

But if I become as masculine and macho as straight guys who are also gamers I wont worry about it so much and the see me as being one the guys and I wont feel like an outsider when I'm encountering straight men I dont know in cod lobbies or other fps games.

I just dont want anybody judging and shaming me for my sexuality and making feel inadequate as a man .

So I want to be accepted by straight men and earn the respect of my fellow gamers to the point they see me as being just as masculine and brave as straight men who are gamers eventhough I'm gay.

So will this work out for me or am I just too self conscious and overlysensitive about my masculinity and sexual orientation ?

Sorry for the tldr and any good advice given would be appreciated and for transparency's sake; I'm not trolling I'm just looking for a way to solve this gaming adjacent problem.

submitted by /u/Relentless37
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