Here’s a German native with that same question. So yes, it seems like a loaded term, but a very common one.

And some people seem to think that “men” and “women” would be better terms, but those terms are usually referring to adults and not boys and girls?

Yes, from what I’ve seen that’s also a problem, because people use «men» and «girl», so a child term for women and an adult term for men. I think the point is to use the adult form, if you’re not talking about literal children.

I know in Spanish «male» and «female» is used in a biological way, as in «a male human», so calling a woman «a female» (or a man «a male») is seen as treating them as animals, as not the same as you. I think it’s the same in English (as the r/MenAndFemales Reddit page suggests), but I can’t confirm this in any dictionary.