Ah, it's December.
You know what that means.
It means eggnog, Christmas Trees and the debate about whether the Frank Loesser song "Baby It's Cold Outside" is kinda creepy. The basic concept of the song is that a woman is telling a man that she's with repeatedly that she needs to leave, while the man keeps pressuring her to stay by saying "it's cold outside."
People have argued that it amounts to a woman saying "no" and a man refusing to accept no means no.
Others have argued that within the context of the time it was written, women's sexual freedom was frowned upon even more than it is today, so the song is actually quite radical in its depiction of a woman engaging in a scenario with clear sexual undertones.
And still others have argued that it doesn't matter what its context was when it was written and not all art ages well.
For radio listeners of Star 102 Cleveland, it was time to retire the song. Their DJ Glenn Anderson received a large volume of complaints about them playing the song in their Christmas line-up.
He decided to pull it and wrote about why in a blog post:
"We used to play the song 'Baby It's Cold Outside', but you're the Christmas Executive Officer at Star 102 and you told us it's no longer appropriate. I gotta be honest, I didn't understand why the lyrics were so bad...Until I read them."
He went on:
"Now, I do realize that when the song was written in 1944, it was a different time, but now while reading it, it seems very manipulative and wrong. The world we live in is extra sensitive now, and people get easily offended, but in a world where #MeToo has finally given women the voice they deserve, the song has no place."
People debated the move.
Though there were those who agreed that it was time to retire the song.
And reminded people that #MeToo did not start spontaneously, but was really a reaction to attitudes that pressure males to "not give up until she gives in" among other things.
Anyone who loves the song can still buy multiple versions and listen to it at home, but maybe it is time to take it off the public airwaves.
