Bah Humbug!

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside”

This is my absolute FAVORITE song of the Christmas season.  I love the back and forth banter between the male and female singers.  I love the flirtatious, fun nature of the song, and the way you’re left wondering whether she stayed or went.  Also, it incorporates two of my all-time favorite pastimes….a wicked winter blizzard (“It’s up to your knees out there”) and a cocktail party (“Say, what’s in this drink?”).  I love the idea of the girl being enticed to stay by someone she obviously fancies.  Many, many people have covered this song over the years, but my favorite rendition is by Michael Buble’ and Idina Menzel.  In my fantasy dreams, I sing it with Harry Connick Jr. at Rockefeller Center.  (It’s ok, John knows he’s #1 on my laminated “list.”  And also, I can’t sing).

Here’s where the Bah Humbug part comes in….

A radio station in Cleveland is banning the song from its holiday playlist because they’ve deemed it too insensitive in this age of #MeToo.  As of this writing, the Denver radio station KOSI 101.1 is also removing the song from its 24/7 holiday line-up, citing the “predatory nature” of the song to be the reason.  This is not the first I’ve heard of this.  A year ago, right in the thick of the Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer scandals I read many other articles calling for this song to go by the wayside.  Some have even gone as far as to call this a “date rape anthem.”

Come on.  It’s a GREAT song, so let’s settle down and take it for exactly that.  Let’s not take the words, twist them around and turn this into something it’s not.

For the record, I am in no way, shape or form diminishing, discounting, or making light of the #MeToo movement.  I stand wholeheartedly behind any woman who has been verbally or physically abused, or otherwise made to feel beneath someone, or been forced to make a choice she didn’t want to make.  This fall, I watched intently the testimony of Dr. Christine Ford in Brett Kavanaugh’s court hearings.  And, while I found the timing of it all to be a bit curious, I really do believe that something happened.  The truth lies somewhere in the middle between his story and hers.  My point is that I think it’s a stretch to take this well-loved holiday song and turn it into a situation where someone was abused.

Back on track…..

I think it’s important to talk about the history of the song and what the intention was of the lyrics.  The song was written SEVENTY-FOUR years ago, by Frank Loesser as a song for him and his wife to sing at cocktail parties.  This was commonplace back before the days of Spotify, Pandora, and iTunes.  People actually sang songs around a piano.  This was a simple cat and mouse, call and response song made to entertain.  A few years later, Loesser sold the song to be used in the movie “Neptune’s Daughter.”  Ricardo Montalban and Esther Williams sang the duet, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.  BUT, HERE’S WHERE IT GETS GOOD….in the SAME movie Red Skelton and Betty Garrett sing the song in the reverse.  SHE is singing the parts about wanting HIM to stay.  If you watch the clip from YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpDLpz88V-I )she actually pushes him down onto a couch while she begs him to stay.  Double standard much?

Let’s dig a little deeper though into the lyrics and dispel some of the arguments being made right now about its meaning:

• One of the primary criticisms centers on the line “Say, what’s in this drink?”  People who are opponents of the song think that this line is in reference to a date rape drug being slipped into her drink.  Has anyone stopped to consider that maybe she says that because the drink is GOOD?  Like “Wow, what’s in this drink? It’s delicious!”  Maybe that’s why she says she’ll have another.
• The woman in the song is at the house or party BY CHOICE.  He says he’s “been hoping that you’d drop in” not that he talked her into coming and then locked the door behind her as is implied when you call this a rape song.
• She continues to have A GOOD TIME, and says as much multiple times.  “This evening has been….so very nice.”  “This welcome has been….so nice and warm.”  “You’ve really been grand.”
• She is torn between knowing that she really should go home, but clearly doesn’t want to.  The 1940’s were a different time, but let’s not pretend that people didn’t have sex or even stay the night at each other’s places out of wedlock.  It happened.  Even good girls did it.  She says “I really can’t stay” followed by “Well, maybe just a half a drink more.”  Also, “I ought to say no, no, no sir…at least I’m gonna say that I tried” followed by “Well, maybe just a cigarette more.”
• Most importantly, at the end of the song, the two singers are in harmony saying the same thing, “Baby It’s Cold Outside.” They’re in agreement, no one is crying, it’s implied that she’s going to do exactly what she wanted to do the whole time…stay with a man that she is into.
• Another part of the song that critics have honed in on is the fact that the man compliments the woman’s looks as a way to discount what she’s saying; blowing off her concerns if you will.  He calls her beautiful, says her eyes are like starlight, and that her hair looks swell.  What a jerk!!  If we as women can’t take a compliment about our eyes or hair without making it about someone being predatory…well, that makes us assholes.

If banning a song because of its begging nature is what we’re after here, then there are plenty of others that should be included.  Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” is full of words about his wants and needs and how you should just give it to him (“You’re my medicine, open up and let me in.  Darling, you’re so great, I can’t wait for you to operate”).  How is this not EXACTLY the same thing?  Yet, this song is not banned from radio.  In fact, it’s played at every frat party and wedding reception.  Or, how about half of the rap songs out there with blatant misogynistic themes?  “Ain’t No Fun” by Snoop Dogg is a prime example, listen to it.  Wonder if Martha Stewart has that one on her workout playlist?

“Baby It’s Cold Outside” is a holiday song.  Christmas is sacred and as a society we need to work to keep it that way, no matter how you celebrate it.  The season is no place for politics, censorship, or making innocent movies and songs about something they are not.  What’s next?  “White Christmas” because it’s racist….even though we all know it’s about snow?

At the end of the day, if the song offends you, DON’T LISTEN TO IT.  Turn it off.  Or, change the station like I do every time ZZ Top, Deep Purple, Rush or Celine Dion comes on.  Let’s not continue banning historical art because it doesn’t fit where we are right now.  You can’t change history just because you don’t like it.  Controversial topics often make for great art….these songs, books, movies and paintings deserve to be exactly what they are.