'Baby It's Cold Outside' banned by Cleveland radio station

[singsingsing]

I've heard the explanation that it's not about date rape, and the explanation makes sense to me, but I'm sorry - I still hate this song. So, so, so very much. 

I think a much more offensive song is 'Santa Buddy' by Michael Buble. Because of course a MAN could never cover the (equally terrible imo) song 'Santa Baby', I mean, it would sound like a MAN! was flirting with another MAN?!?!11 So instead you get a song which genuinely sounds like it's being sung by a deeply closeted and self-loathing gay man who is secretly attracted to Santa but desperate to prove his masculinity and straightness. Yes, it's supposed to be funny, but it's just so, so weird.

I mean wtf is this:

Quote

Santa baby, slip a Rolex under the tree
For me
I've been an awful good guy
Santa buddy, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa buddy, a sixty five convertible too
Steel blue
I'll wait up for you, dude
Santa buddy, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Think of all the fun I've missed
Think of all the hotties that I haven't kissed
Next year I could be just as good
If you check off my Christmas list

Santa pally, I want a yacht and really that's not a lot
I've been an sweetie all year
Santa buddy, so hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa buddy, one thing that I really do need
The deed
To a platinum mine
Santa pally, so hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa buddy, fill my stocking with Canucks tix
For kicks
Throw me on the first line
Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight

Come and trim my Christmas tree
With some decorations bought at Mercedes
I really do, believe in you
Now let's see if you believe in me

Santa poppy, forgot to mention one little thing
Cha-ching
No I don't mean as a loan
Santa buddy, so hurry down the chimney tonight
Hurry down the chimney tonight,
Oh hurry down the chimney tonight

 

[smittykins]

I just heard that song on the way home from my PT appointment.

[Glasgowghirl]

I have never found the song offensive but even if I did I would not want it banned. The song was written in the 40s so it may be outdated but maybe people should have researched what the song was about before banning it. A lot of song lyrics that were once seen as fine are could be interpreted as offensive but I still think educating people about how times have changed and that these things are not ok now is the way to go over just banning songs from playing. 

[Carm_88]

I think the Baby It's Cold Outside is just a song that aged badly. No, it's not about date rape, I'm pretty sure there weren't roofies in the 40s when it was written, first sang. That being said, it did age badly. In 2018, it sounds horrible. Consent is a big topic and No should always mean no. However, my big issue is that nothing has changed since that song was written, it says "My Maiden's aunt mind is vicious" and in 2018, we still have slut shaming and "The Walk of Shame." Women still can't want to have sex and that's something that has to change. However, if taking the song off the radio makes people more comfortable, that's fine.

I would like Santa Baby or Santa Buddy whatever the Michael Buble version is to be taken off the radio. God, I hate that song. It makes my skin crawl.

[church_of_dog]

2 minutes ago, Glasgowghirl said:

I have never found the song offensive but even if I did I would not want it banned. The song was written in the 40s so it may be outdated but maybe people should have researched what the song was about before banning it. A lot of song lyrics that were once seen as fine are could be interpreted as offensive but I still think educating people about how times have changed and that these things are not ok now is the way to go over just banning songs from playing. 

Even though the word 'banned' is being used here, I don't think that's what actually happened.  I think -- someone please correct me if I'm wrong -- that a radio station (a private company) has decided not to play the song.  They're not forcing anyone other than their own DJs (are they still called DJs?) to avoid the song.  Again, unless I'm mistaken.

[tabitha2]

There used to be a local station in Dallas that played Nostalgia Music from 40’s and 50’s and 60’s  or as they called it “Songs from America’s Greatest Generation”  now most of the songs were lovely,  charming and total earworms but there are some strange and depressing songs as well  as the ones already mentioned as creepy and offensive.

 

[Seahorse Wrangler]

I always thought the line "Hurry down the chimney tonight" was an euphemism for sex.

[tabitha2]

Well, she was not playing checkers with “Santa” every night to expect to get gifts from Tiffany and furs.

I saw a Playboy fold out when I was kid about Mommy ,er, kissing Santa Clause. Charming. 

[JenniferJuniper]

1 hour ago, OldFadedStar said:

The phrase “say, what’s in this drink?” Was apparently a common phrase at that time, kinda like saying “whoa this is one strong drink”. So her saying “say what’s in this drink” isn’t her implying that it’s drugged, it’s her trying to come up with an excuse to stay. 

 I've always assumed she was saying the drink was very strong, which could mean he was trying to get her drunker quicker as part of his "encouragement" that she spend the night.   

I do think the song has some date rape overtones but I don't agree with banning every old song because it may be offensive when viewed through 21st century eyes.  You can't actually just get rid of a song anyway.  This one been recorded dozens of times and continues to be by high profile artists.   Let's pick our battles wisely.

Now if we really want to get offended - 

 

 

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Terrie said:

For some reason, the closest equivilant I can think of in modern English is "beau" 

And even that is actually French! 

 

 

[Spinosaurus]

47 minutes ago, singsingsing said:

instead you get a song which genuinely sounds like it's being sung by a deeply closeted and self-loathing gay man who is secretly attracted to Santa but desperate to prove his masculinity and straightness. Yes, it's supposed to be funny, but it's just so, so weird.

 

'I caught Daddy blowing Santa Claus...'

[Alisamer]

I have to say, as much as I hate Baby It's Cold Outside, it's not by any means my least favorite Christmas song. There's a LOT of dreck on the Christmas stations. Christmas Shoes, that Hippopotamus song, almost any version of "I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", 35 versions of Last Christmas (but never the George Michael or Darren Hayes versions I like), etc. And as much as I like Josh Groban, I don't need to hear his version of Noel every 15 minutes on the dot.

And I have never figured out how so talented a musician and songwriter as Paul McCartney managed to come up with the horrible offense to the universe that is "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime". If I could permanently ban just one Christmas song, that would be it. If I could ban just one song of any kind, that would probably be it!

[Carm_88]

42 minutes ago, Seahorse Wrangler said:

I always thought the line "Hurry down the chimney tonight" was an euphemism for sex.

I always thought so too because in Newfoundland the term "swept her chimney" means sex.

But also hurry down the chimney, she's waiting to reward him.

[viii]

I think this song may have started off innocently enough, but it doesn't fit comfortably in our world anymore, so I don't think it's a big deal it's been pulled. If people aren't offended by it and want to listen to it, no one is stopping them, but at least those who don't want to hear it don't have to. 

[Silas]

I read an amazing post about this on Tumblr once but Baby It's Cold Outside is most definitely not about a date rape drug. The term "what's in this drink" was pretty much a popular saying back then, referring to alcohol.  Context is so important when looking at older songs. Heck, I've seen some argue it's a feminist anthem (at the time) because the girl clearly wants to stay but she knows society will frown upon her. I don't know if I'd go that far but whatever.

I understand disliking it because it really didn't age well but to claim it's something it's not just isn't fair. As for it being banned? I probably wouldn't go that far tbh.

 

[tabitha2]

No has to listen to a damn thing.The people who don’t want to listen to it and are offended can simply turn the station as well    

 

[HarryPotterFan]

Can we ban “Blurred Lines” instead? Because that song was never okay and is so so so awful on so many levels.

[singsingsing]

I remember seeing the claim that 'Baby It's Cold Outside' is actually an early feminist anthem, and I really disagree. I think that's a huge stretch. It's a silly, sexist song that is very much a product of its time. It's not about a woman feeling pressured by society to say no to sex and valiantly standing up for what she wants. It's about a woman who's fretting between displeasing her family/society and displeasing a man. What she actually wants never comes into it. He's pressuring her to stay and she feels like she should go. Does she, in her heart, truly want to stay, or does she actually want to go? We'll never know. Because what she wants doesn't matter. We know exactly what her family and neighbours want, and we know exactly what the man in the song wants, but we have no idea what the woman herself actually wants. There's nothing feminist about it.

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

It is a flirty song about a man not wanting his lady to leave in the freezing cold during a snow storm. Or at least that is how I've always taken it.  If you want to your could turn it around and have the woman sing the mans part and he hers, or they could have 2 men sing it, or two women. It isn't stay and have sex with me or else its, come on it is cold and nasty out, I don't want to worry about you stay here.  

we can't ban everything from our past that  doesn't fit the snif test today. The fact is our history is a sexist racist history, this is how it was, we've grown and now this is how it is.  Point out the things we've changed for the better and remember how bad it was, it kind of keeps from going back to how things were.  For example I LOVE Gone with the Wind, but it is a movie that glorified the south during the Civil War, the south was wrong, they were the enemy of America, but it is still a good movie, just know that it is told from a very old very dated view point and we don't think like that anymore. This is just how I look at it.

[singsingsing]

2 minutes ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

It is a flirty song about a man not wanting his lady to leave in the freezing cold during a snow storm. Or at least that is how I've always taken it.  If you want to your could turn it around and have the woman sing the mans part and he hers, or they could have 2 men sing it, or two women. It isn't stay and have sex with me or else its, come on it is cold and nasty out, I don't want to worry about you stay here.  

we can't ban everything from our past that  doesn't fit the snif test today. The fact is our history is a sexist racist history, this is how it was, we've grown and now this is how it is.  Point out the things we've changed for the better and remember how bad it was, it kind of keeps from going back to how things were.  For example I LOVE Gone with the Wind, but it is a movie that glorified the south during the Civil War, the south was wrong, they were the enemy of America, but it is still a good movie, just know that it is told from a very old very dated view point and we don't think like that anymore. This is just how I look at it.

If the genders were switched people would interpret it as an extremely clingy woman desperately trying to keep a man who doesn't seem all that interested with her, while he continually tries to find polite excuses to get away from her. Actually read it with the genders switched - it sounds even creepier, because we're not socialized to expect behaviour like that from a woman like we are from a man. That should tell us something. And I don't find lines like 'what's in this drink', and 'the answer is no', 'there's no sense hurting my pride' and 'think of my lifelong sorrow if you caught pneumonia and died' flirty at all. They're creepy and messed up because this is 2018 and the song has not aged well.

I'm not saying it should be banned, but I do think it has aged very poorly, and it's reasonable for people to find it offensive and to be uncomfortable with it. The same goes for movies like Gone With the Wind. I don't think Gone With the Wind should be banned, but I wouldn't have a problem if a specific movie theatre decided they were not comfortable playing it.

[acheronbeach]

@fraurosena Probably ups the creep factor that it's Sean Connery, he of the quote "I don't think there's anything particularly wrong in hitting a woman," and who played James Bond as a rapist.  

South Park did a pretty good take on how creepy this song can be - they did a bit where Taylor Swift and Bill Cosby sing it as a duet, and Cosby tries to give her a glass of wine.  

[JenniferJuniper]

1 hour ago, Alisamer said:

And I have never figured out how so talented a musician and songwriter as Paul McCartney managed to come up with the horrible offense to the universe that is "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime". If I could permanently ban just one Christmas song, that would be it. If I could ban just one song of any kind, that would probably be it!

I just heard it on the car radio and thought "that must be the worst song ever written".  Never mind Christmas songs, it has to be his worst song.  I'm not too keen on that endlessly played Elton John song either.

"Father Christmas" by the Kinks ("We got no time for your silly toys), The Ramones' "Merry Christmas, I Don't Want To Fight Tonight", and of course Kirsty MacColl and Pogues' "Fairytale of New York"  -   all good stuff. 

[fraurosena]

I love all things Christmas and I love Christmas songs. I have hundreds and play them continuously until the new year.
But I hate, absolutely hate "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth". Ugh. 

 

[AnywhereButHere]

I have been humming Baby It's Cold Outside (mostly in my head but sometimes not) all afternoon, and it's starting to drive me crazy, and I'm getting random side-eyes from my coworkers. I just ran down to my car to get my earbuds, but with my luck, the first song that pops up on my Pandora will probably be that one...

[merricat]

I'm glad that society has started to have discussions like this one. I’m glad that you can complain to a radio station about rapey song lyrics and get taken seriously. It shows a growing awareness of the importance of consent.
(Just to clarify, with ‘taken seriously’ I don’t mean immediately ban the song. In this case, the station put a poll on their website and let the listeners decide. I like that approach.)

The song in question might not be the worst offender, but that doesn’t mean it should be above criticism. I get how it can be read as a silly, flirty song, however I do think there are good reasons to be uncomfortable with the lyrics.

There are many popular songs with far more offensive lyrics than 'Baby It's Cold Outside" and I absolutely wouldn't mind if they'd receive some pushback.

What I don’t get is the outrage at the banning. If a radio station doesn't want to play a certain song, why not? It's the station's choice and it's not as if people who like the song can't listen to it anywhere else.

(Hi FJ, I’m not exactly new here, I’ve had this account for a while now, but this is my first time posting. I hope I didn’t mess up anything.)