In a #MeToo world, can we still justify Baby, It's Cold Outside?

The Star 102 radio station in Cleveland, Ohio has grabbed the public's attention by pulling the popular Christmas song Baby, It's Cold Outside from its playlist after receiving complaints from some listeners. In a poll on the station's Facebook page, 95% voted that it was a Christmas classic and should be retained, and you might think, "Oh, god what are they objecting to now?", as I did initially. But when you look at it more carefully, you know, maybe the station has a point.

The complainants pointed out that the song is basically a guy trying to force a girl to stay the night against her better judgement, and possibly against her will. At one point, she definitely says, "I simply must go ... the answer is no", only for the man to continue his pressing and wheedling. So, when did "no means no" become negotiable? Later, when she says, "Say, what's in this drink", the spectre of date-rape drugs raises its head for the modern audience (some people have tried to justify the line on contextual and historical grounds, but unconvincingly, I think).

The song, written by Frank Loesser, dates from 1944, when it was originally performed by a husband-wife duet, and it famously appeared in the 1949 film Neptune's Daughter, starring Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalbán. In 1944 or 1949, life was perhaps simpler, and certainly different, than now, but just because a song has been played on the radio for 70 or 80 years doesn't necessarily mean that it should continue to be played forever. In a #MeToo world, maybe we should be rethinking this kind of thing, and the message is portrays to the naïve and the easily-influenced.

It certainly made me think.