(no subject)

[stormdog]

So much recent acrimony about "Baby it's Cold Outside" has frustrated me.

It doesn't have to be good or evil. People aren't, for the most part, talking about 'killing it off', whatever that means. I just happen to think that it doesn't belong in the canon of ubiquitous holiday muzak. People can't seem to grasp any position other than there being nothing wrong with it or it being the embodiment of all that is wrong in pop culture.

Comments

[sabotabby]

I get both interpretations but I don't care because it's a garbage song, like all Christmas music that isn't by the Pogues or Tom Waits or that one Vienna Teng song.

[acelightning]

Some people I know call "Baby It's Cold Outside" the "Date Rape Song". When "Baby It's Cold Outside" was written and became popular, society expected all men to use any means to trick, manipulate, or demand sexual activity from all women, under any circumstances. But women were expected to refuse, to run away, to avoid any appearance of promiscuity - it was believed that good women who really didn't like sex, or want it. In the song, the man keeps telling her the weather is too harsh for the woman to go outside to go home, then he gives her an extra-strong drink to "relax her inhibitions". She keeps insisting she has to leave, so her family won't worry and the neighbors won't think she's immoral, and also insisting that she has to leave and has to say no to his advances, and says, "At least I can say that I tried"... but in the end, she reluctantly agrees to stay the night with the man. (Here's a modern rewrite of the song.)

A similar song of the same era is "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" = in which the woman has voluntarily come to visit the man's home during a snowstorm, so she'll have an excuse to stay. She brings along some "corn for popping", indicating her intention of making the evening cozy. She doesn't seem to worry about her reputation, as they prolong their "good-byeing". I prefer to substitute "Let It Snow" for "Baby It's Cold Outside" when I celebrate the joys of winter!

[stormdog]

"Let It Snow" is definitely a better choice in that theme!

An example I used elsewhere to explain my problem with the popularity of "Baby It's Cold Outside" is Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell." There's a lot of adversarial gender relations there, and sex being used as a bargaining chip in relationships. Those are horrible things to base real-life interactions on. But I do like the album and play it regularly in the car as I drive.

The underlying problem for me in both cases is that the songs are an obfuscated discussion about something that should be discussed openly; attraction, sex, and consent. There's a place for that kind of art, and it explores things that are relevant to people's lives. That's what art, in part, ought to do.

But I think neither Meatloaf nor "It's Cold Outside" are well-suited to being played as background holiday muzak. I'm happy to hear that people are choosing not to play it anymore.

[acelightning]

When I was a teenage/early-20-something girl, stories like the ones Meat Loaf tells in Bat Out Of Hell and Paradise By The Dashboard Light often happened in real life - girls were taught that "boys only want one thing", and that it was their duty to refuse, no matter how persuasive the young man's arguments were, so they could eventually get married in a proper virgin's white gown and veil, to a nice boy. People really used to believe those things, and behave in those ways, fifty years ago. I mean, society is pretty fucked up about sex now, but it's a whole lot better than it was.