Why “Baby It’s Cold Outside” Makes Me Cringe

[jimhines]

Most of the time when I hear people talking about the creepiness factor of Frank Loesser’s 1944 song “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” the line that comes up is “What’s in this drink?”

But a little later in the song, we come to this exchange:

Her: I simply must go.
Him: Baby, it’s cold outside.

Her: The answer is no.
Him: Baby, it’s cold outside.

It’s

Comments

[crewgrrl]

There is an excellent bit on tumblr putting the song in its historical context. It's been followed up by a simple point: if you need to explain the historical context of a song in 5 paragraphs to make it OK, maybe it's not really OK!

[markbernstein]

And to add another dimension to the squick, it's now included on some playlists as a "Christmas song". This is part of a pattern of cultural appropriation that's been going on for a very long time, of course - any song that even mentions winter or cold (Jingle Bells, Sleigh Ride, Winter Wonderland, Frosty the Snowman, ad nauseum) is filed as "Christmassy", even when it makes absolutely no mention of the holiday itself, the religion behind that holiday, or any of the traditions now associated with the holiday. But to associate Christmas with this particular song feels like crossing a line to me.

(I'm aware that I'm using "cultural appropration" in a non-standard way here. But is there a term for when one specific culture, in this case Christianity, appropriates things that were meant to have a general appeal and not be tied to one culture?)

[socchan]

I feel like Christian Supremacy might be closer to what you're looking for? Since the songs in question don't really have a culture to be appropriated from, IMO.

[ethelmay]

Seems to me they have cultural context the same way all songs do. But they're being pigeonholed into a smaller context than is rightfully theirs.

[ethelmay]

Yup. I saw a real-life story about this just today (fortunately not rape, but still), where a guy assumed (or said he did) repeated instances of "no" just meant "teasing."

[alexmegami]

"Christmas Tonight" by Dave Barnes ft. Hillary Scott. Similar kind of sound, even a somewhat similar theme (the weather is terrible, we're supposed to go out) but her concerns are more on the end of "I don't want to disappoint our friends and we've already gotten all dressed up" vs his "it's shitty out, we can see our friends in January, they'll understand", and by the end she is actively planning their night in together with him.

(The official music video is much more oogy, because he's actively sabotaging their/her attempts to leave.)