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I guess I'm proud. I don't go proclaiming my hobbies to the world, but if someone asks, I don't mind telling, and if someone sees my minis shelf, I won't hide it (I had it proudly on display in my room last summester in university, quite a few people were actually quite amazed by them). Hell, I did plenty of painting and converting in the public area of the common room, and no one really said anything.

As far as people thinking that it alienates women, that's not really the case. Most of the girls I've met in the past year who saw my hobby really couldn't care less, or were at the very least slightly interested by the 'artistic' aspects of it. It's simply the stigma of the people who play with the toy soldiers.
Of course, I can't say much about relationships, since I end up being every single girl's big brother/best friend (I don't know, I just give off that kind of air...), making my love-life utterly stagnant, but I'm not socially outcasted in anyway for my hobbies. If anything, I'm more out there than some of my friends.

If you're an unkept, poorly dressed slob with little in the way of social skills, you're going to be ridiculed and outcast no matter what.

Brother SRM wrote:Once you get out of highschool people really don't tend to care that much what you do for fun as long as it doesn't involve people getting hurt.

No one seemed to mind when I told them I worked in murders and executions...

The only people who have criticized me for my hobby turned out to be a massive man-bitch (I was good friends with his girlfriend, their breakup got really funny when she asked me to harrass him...), and the other is generally regarded as incredibly annoying by my circle of friends and aquaintances.

Being made fun of by your peers is nothing to worry about when you consider that most of the people who do care enough tend to have very little in the way of their own personal lives to keep themselves busy.