Well if we aren't a "PC community" on the Mudcat, what are we?

But I hate the way the term PC in its other sense (no PC49, we aren't talking about you) is thrown around so freely. What is involved here isn't being "politically" anything, it's taking note as to whether we're using language in ways that are respectful and courteous, and that is always important, and always has been. The words change, is all, and we start to become aware of people who've been ignored previously.

So I imagine if I was an "African American" I'd prefer to be called "black", partly to express a sense of a link with other black people who aren't any kind of American, or any kind of African for that matter. And I'd likely enough want to appropriate a word like "nigger" for my own use, and in solidarity to previous generations. But that wouldn't mean I'd like hearing it used by some racist, or as a "joke".

In the same way, I reckon there are women who could sing a song like this one in a way that wasn't demeaning or hurtful, and was funny. And Allen's friend sounds like one of them. But I can't see a man being able to.