General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVOX: Why "Baby, It's Cold Outside" became an annual controversy about date rape and consent
When you first hear it, the song seems like a cute, flirty call-and-response duet between a man and his lady friend who are debating whether she should stay the night. On the one hand, what would her parents or the neighbors think? On the other hand, its just so cold outside. The ending is ambiguous, but its implied that she decides to stay after all, keeping them both warm on a cold winters night.
But when you listen closer, the songs lyrics also seem, well ... a little rapey. The guy ignores his dates protests and badgers her to stay, which feels a lot like sexual coercion. At one point the woman asks, Say, whats in this drink? which is pretty alarming to a modern audience that understands how roofies work. The original score even lists the mans part as Wolf and the womans part as Mouse, making the predator/prey dynamic creepily explicit.
The songs legions of defenders argue that those concerns are overblown. They note Whats in this drink? was a common joke in the 1930s and 40s made by people who wanted to make an excuse for something that they knew very well they shouldnt be doing. And in that more prudish time period, women were expected to turn down sex (at first, anyway) even if they wanted it.
The vastly different ways people hear the same short song have set off an annual internet battle over its feminist merits. For every think piece calling it a date-rape anthem, theres a corresponding Oh, come on take about how oversensitive social justice warriors are killing romance and seduction and taking the songs lyrics out of context.
http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/12/19/13885552/baby-its-cold-outside-feminist-date-rape-romantic
rzemanfl
(29,589 posts)Sarah Taylor, daughter of James Taylor and Carly Simon sings it.
nolabear
(42,022 posts)And I love it. ❤❤❤
Sgent
(5,857 posts)nm
MineralMan
(146,366 posts)in my personal ethic. That has always been my position.
beaglelover
(3,522 posts)TlalocW
(15,397 posts)But this is one partly because I don't understand how it's a Christmas song. The other part of not liking it is the creepiness of it. Another song I don't understand how it's a Christmas song is Pentatonix's version of, "Hallelujah." There is nothing in the lyrics to connect it to Christmas except the second stanza which refers to Samson and Delilah and David and Bathsheba, and according to the Bible, David is an ancestor of Jesus.
Anyway, there are few Xmas songs that make me punch the change station button on my car's radio with the fury of a white hot supernova, but "Cold Outside" is one. "Christmas Shoes," is another and then any covers by Kenny G, Harry Connick, Jr., or Michael Buble torture me with their white-bread blandness.
Do you see what he's doing to that present? HE'S FARTING ON IT, and it's symbolic for what he does to music in general and Christmas carols in particular!
I feel better.
TlalocW
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,861 posts)That's the worst one for me. I cringed from the first time I heard it, and my patience for it keeps decreasing over time. I think I'm down to a few tenths of a second before I shut off a radio station playing it.
Ray Stevens songs like "The Streak" repulsed me as a little kid in the 70's too. That and the show "Hee Haw."
rzemanfl
(29,589 posts)Buckeye_Democrat
(14,861 posts)I don't think I've heard it before now.
The woman I heard at least had a pleasant singing voice, but the lyrics suck.
rzemanfl
(29,589 posts)Buckeye_Democrat
(14,861 posts)And TV special:
EX500rider
(10,899 posts)I'd be very surprised if the daughter of James Taylor and Carly Simon didn't have a great singing voice.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,861 posts)EDIT: I wasn't sure at first who was singing in the video that I quickly found online, but it was her.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,684 posts)Buckeye_Democrat
(14,861 posts)... that one didn't produce visceral dislike for me.
If it was in a hillbilly voice and played to raucous laughter on something like "The Bob and Tom Show," I'd hate it more.
Coventina
(27,244 posts)"In the Summertime"
yortsed snacilbuper
(7,945 posts)zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Language and culture evolve over time and words and meaning change.
That said, it's also a case that people of the time saw this as innocent flirting, not realizing how often these same conversations weren't innocent flirting. Over time we learn.
Watch the old Arthur movies and realize that at the time such drunken driving would be seen as "funny".
TlalocW
(15,397 posts)It is about a dude trying to get laid, no matter what the era.
And isn't that what Christmas is all about?
TlalocW
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