PRIMARY: The meaning that underlies the song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is better than its interpreted implications of rape, but is still a problem.
By Alex Flores, Staff Writer
Several radio stations in the United States and Canada have decided to cease playing the 74-year-old song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” after claims of it describing and promoting rape. The #MeToo movement inspired the decision as it “… has really opened our eyes and really makes us look at content and lyrics. I think we need to do a deep dive,” Brian Figula, program director at KOIT radio station, said. However, in this case, a “deep dive” is being done for the wrong reason.
The song was written in 1944, a time in which women were extremely oppressed and expected to be perfect wives and mothers. It was also a time in which women were expected to suppress their sexual desires because having such things was “unladylike” and apparently not human. “The neighbors might think,” the woman says in the song, along with “There’s bound to be talk tomorrow,” and “I ought to say no, no, no sir”. Society believed that yes, she “ought” to say no because if she says yes — yes to ultimately sex — then she is inherently a promiscuous woman or slut. “According to the sexual double standard, boys and men are rewarded and praised for heterosexual sexual contacts, whereas girls and women are derogated and stigmatized for similar behaviors,” Derek A. Kreager and Jeremy Staff stated in their “Sexual Double Standard And Adolescent Peer Acceptance” study. The man will not receive disapproving looks from his mother, father, sister, brother, and maiden aunt coming home later on, but the woman will. At least she can say that she tried.
The song can indeed be interpreted as a form of acquaintance rape, in which rape is perpetrated by someone who knows the victim in any way. Date rape is when rape is perpetrated by someone romantically or potentially sexually involved with the victim. This situation is often accompanied by the use of alcohol or drugs as a means to take advantage of the victim. In the song, the two parties are drinking and the woman asks “Say what’s in this drink?” which can imply that she was drugged and is feeling the effects. The woman also explicitly says that “The answer is no” and the man continues to ignore her protestations, focusing on her lips instead. Although the song is disturbing when perceived in this way, in actuality, she is declining his offers because she has been conditioned to conform to societal expectations.
This double standard for the sexual activity of men and women still exists today, though not as intense. Progress is being made thanks to things like the #MeToo movement and if “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” shouldn’t be played for any reason, let it be because of the declination of another unjust societal expectation.