re: The Sun and the Moon
"french and english have only masculin and feminin to cope with"
huh? No we dont. It's just THE or A on these shores (no le/la or un/une for us)
OK - granted, if you're using A and the next work begins with a vowel, then it's AN, but that's not a gender issue.
Sure, we might refer to a car or a ship as 'she' - but it's the ship, the car, a ship, a car. 'she' is simply a friendly term for a vessel/structure for which one has affection.
Doug