I thought this thread had reached its end, but can I just say that the first shanties I ever sung were in primary school, and I don’t recall the girls in the class being excluded from those songs. That’s not quite true, because I was very good at miming whilst others sung in those days, but it also begs the question should young children with no experience of hauling sails, working capstans or consuming a drop of Nelson’s Blood be singing such songs?