Feminist Shanties
by The Auntie Shanty Crew
Feminist Sea Shanties
As Auntie Shanty aims to be an inclusive session, a lot of the songs in the songbook are edited to remove the most flagrant sexism, racism, misogyny or other language that might make people feel excluded. The FAQ has lots more information about how and why we do this.
While this makes the songbook’s songs great for singing with a broad group, it doesn’t by any means leave the edited songs with feminist lyrics. For someone approaching the site for the first time flicking through more than 100 songs, you might find an awful lot more geographical and nautical terms than you do kickass women.
Luckily, we do have some more explicitly feminist shanties in the colleciton. This post is here for people seeking the more deliberately feminist shanties from the songbook. As with everything here, it’s a work in progress - if we missed things please get in touch, or edit the page.
Not all of these will meet all definitions of feminism (especially some of the older broadside ballads about female sailors) but I felt a more inclusive list was appropriate.
Re-writes of old favourites (or versions with added verses)
- Molly Malone (Cockless with Muscles)
- Nelson’s blood (no VAT on tampons wouldn’t do us any harm)
- What Shall we do with the Patriarchy?(/Drunken Sailor)
Feminist and about female sailors
- Broadside
- Grace Darling
- Grace O’Malley
- Female Sailor Bold
- Female Smuggler
- Flora and James
- Jeanne de Clisson (la belle dame sans merci)
- Lady Leroy
- Maid on the Shore
- Pirate Chantey (Key and Peele)
- Salt Liberty - The Ballad of Mary Lacy
- The Shores of Hispaniola
- Twiddles