Quote:
Originally Posted by Pogopuschel
What do you say instead? 男性の学生？ Why does 男 sound rude here? I honestly couldn't tell.
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「男性の学生」 is not only wordy but its collocation is quite unnatural. We do say 「男性（の）会社員」、「男性（の）歌手」、「男性化 粧品」, etc. but not 「男性の学生」.
To say "that male student", which I honestly doubt is even said in English in a natural setting (but then what would I know about English?), one normally would use 「男子学生」 for colleges, 「男子生徒」 for junior high and high schools, and 「男子児童」 for elementary.
In more real-life situations, however, you would hear 「あの子」、「あの人」、「あの学生/生徒」 way more often. The gender of the student would be obvious nearly 100% of the time, which I think is exactly why you would say "that male student" or "that female nurse" just by looking at them.
You DO NOT say 「あの男の学生」 and 「あの女」 unless you already have a very negative opinion of those people. There is no why about it. We just don't. It is completely OK to use 「男」 or 「女」 when referring to either gender in general in phrases like 「男はみんなオオカミだ。」 or 「女の心は変わりやすい。」. When referring to a particular person (especially a stranger), however, you could not sound ruder and/or more unえducated if you used these two short words.
Ask around since you appear to be located in Japan.