"No, not because of male/female, but because of non-standard."

Actually, the standard (TIA-232-F) does define different functions for the Male and Female connectors!
It specifically defines a 25-Way Female D-type connector to used on DCE (eg, modems),
and a 25-Way Male D-type connector to used on DTE (eg, PCs)

Thus, a true RS-232 DTE-DCE cable is Male-Female and all simply wired "straight through"
The fun starts when you get into DTE-DTE links (eg, PC-to-PC; PC-to-Terminal, etc...)

The standard for the 9-pin "RS-232" is TIA/EIA-574 "9-Position Non-Synchronous Interface between Data Terminal Equipment and Data Circuit-Terminating Equipment Employing Serial Binary Data Interchange (ANSI/TIA/EIA-574-90)"

Note also that RS-232 takes a "system" view of the definition of "Transmit" and "Receive":
eg, "Transmit" refers to the data which is to be transmitted over the communication link; therefore it is an output from the DTE and an input to the DCE!

I won't repeat my usual rant about having to pay for standards - see it here and here if you really want to...