The war on the scandalous lyrics in ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’

You may have learned by now that Americans have drawn a line in the sand about the classic Christmas duet written by Frank Loesser in 1944, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

This decades-long holiday staple has started to rub people the wrong way. Maybe that’s not the best idiom to use, either.

You see, the lyrics to the song have always been a little romantic, a little risqué, but now — to many — they sound a little… rape-y. Some of you are going, “Puh-lease!” right now. Others of you are shouting, “I’ve been saying this for years!” And no doubt, those of you that are totally befuddled by this debate are going to take a closer listen the next time you hear it on Sunny 100 today.

The duet captures an exchange between a man and woman who are at the tail end of what seems to have been a pleasant date. Maybe dinner at his place. And some dessert and drinks later, there is an apparent mini-blizzard outside that is the cause of much concern. To go home, or to stay. That is her question. She is very concerned about what everyone will think if she doesn’t get her butt home soon. She also has a few excuses for kicking it with her man-friend as long as she wants. He is practically begging her to stay the whole song. The way he expresses this can be seen as romantic or downright scary depending on your current-day analysis of these quite-old lyrics.

Let’s look at a few of the key lines in question:

“Say, what’s in this drink?” she asks somewhere in Verse 2. This question jumps out to us in light of all we’ve learned about date rape drugs being slipped into women’s drinks. But it’s important to know the historical context: in the 1940s, this was a common tongue-in-cheek phrase uttered by someone looking for a funny way to excuse their clear and eager indulgence. A common response would be, “Oh nothing, not even alcohol!” to be followed by laughter. So given the context, this lady might very well have been joking and flirting with her date as she deliberately got her drink on. She did request a refill after all.

“I simply must go — the answer is no,” she croons shortly thereafter. He rebuts with “but baby, it’s cold outside,” twice, as if she hadn’t heard him the last ten times. When a woman says ‘no’ to intimate advances, and sure even to a man’s request that she not go home yet, that should be a moment in which the man respects her decision and leaves it be. On the other hand, playing coy can be a fun part of a date when both parties are interested in each other. Almost a kind of foreplay! She ends the verse with, “But maybe just a cigarette more.” So we could interpret this as her playing hard-to-get. Maybe she has no intention of leaving soon. She may probably want to think about quitting smoking for the new year, though.

What do you think? Do you find this song playfully romantic or does it give you the creeps? Either way, I wish you a merry Christmas! And a very happy birthday to my sister, Julia. You will always be my very favorite Christmas present.

This story was originally published December 20, 2016 at 11:31 AM with the headline "The war on the scandalous lyrics in ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’."