Are you a male or a female?

I was trying to learn some Japanese lately and picked up a book called Japanese The Manga Way by Wayne Lammers.  Its a very interesting book and I quite enjoy using it.  

I was reading with interest how Japanese has distinct differences between the way men and women speak, as well as different levels of honorific language.   While these distinctions are not as absolute as they once were, they are still very much a part of Japanese culture and must be taken into account.  

I was thinking to myself how its cool that English doesn't have very many weird distinctions like that... until I noticed something in the way Lammers was writing his book.  

In many European languages there are words and expressions that are distinctly used for people and for animals.  It is considered very rude and wrong to use these words for the wrong thing.  In fact, in French, there's a very nasty phrase Beau cul, belle gueule (sp?) which I don't remember how to spell, mostly on account of it being shortened in speech to BCBG.  It means "nice face, nice ass" and is applied when leering over a member of the opposite sex (or the same sex, I suppose, if you're attracted to them).  Its like swearing and nasty, but mainly because cul and guele (sp?) are words that would only be used with animals, never with humans.

This is seen also in German and in English.  For instance, no one would ever use the verb breed with people, unless they were trying to be insulting.  

Getting back to Lammers, I noticed in his book that he always refered to the differences between men and women speech with 'male' and 'female.'  Not that strange except that's how he always expresses it.

"Males would use..."  "Females would say..."  instead of "Men would use" or "Women would say..."

Seeing this usage over and over in the book was causing me some cognitive dissonance.  Like a trompe d'oeil or a pothole in the road.

It just struck me that, at least in my experience, English speakers usually do not refer to men and women as males and females in general speech.  Its not really rude, I suppose, just strange.  No one asks where the male bathroom is.  No one asks if a shirt is for females or males.  At least not native speakers. 

Au contraire, you say, what about girls and boys?   When one say s "men would say..." does that apply to boys as well?  

Oh come on, other than being a troll pain in the ass, everyone is going to know that "Men say atsui da yo" applies to boys as well since they are just men who's toys are smaller and a lot less expensive.   As far as I know (which could be more, I'm sure) there has never been a human language with age distinctions between men and boys, women and girls. 

So I guess English does have lots of weird distinctions.  I just never notice because I'm a native speaker, and it isn't until another supposed native speaker starts using words in a strange way that I notice.