Baby, The Past is a Different Country...

[elfs]

This morning on the way to work I was subjected by the song, Baby, It's Cold Outside, a 1944 duet written by Frank Loesser. The narrative of the song is about as straightforward as it gets: each couplet starts with a young woman making protest noises about how she must be running along, and a young man responding with either commentary about how cold and snowy it is outside or how beautiful the young woman is.

The entire theme of the song is about him slowly convincing her to stay in and have a make-out session (and perhaps more) instead. But what's fascinating is that the young woman decides to tell her "vicious minded aunt," that the reason she was late getting home is that she stayed for one more cigarette.

Remember kids, making out is bad, but smoking is an acceptable pleasure.

Comments

[wyattkelly.livejournal.com]

Don't forget, there's also a line in there where the young lady questions what's in her drink. Nothin' sez lovin' like slippin' yer beloved a mickey!

[marketeer]

Cleaning out my great aunt's house after she died, I found the Hallmark birth announcement my parents had sent her when I was born. It had a cartoon that showed a mother sitting serenely in bed with a newborn and a father who was pacing and smoking outside her hospital room. So, it was acceptable to depict smoking on a baby announcement back then.

[norincraft.livejournal.com]

The Louis Armstrong version was even more umm, direct

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Aaaahhhh!!, creepy date rapist song!!!!

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Along with "My Eyes Adored You," another song that's always made my creep-o-meter climb to unacceptable levels.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

EeEeeeeewwww!

Just looked that one up.

Ick ick ick.

[caprine.livejournal.com]

Ditto. That song always sounded quite date rapey to me.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

Every year, I hear that song and someone opines that it's romantic. And every year, I have to find a new and tactful way of reminding that person that the song is really about stalking and pressure into sex -- with the weather serving as one arm of the vice, and the 'wolf' as the other.

The parts are marked "mouse" and "wolf" on the lyrical score. It doesn't get much plainer than that.

[maellenkleth]

I suppose that if one enjoys songs lauding date rape, that one would be just dandy.

I'd like to hope that this goes out of fashion rather swiftly.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

Funny, I was also about to refer to his journal entry, which I also commented on. Thanks for repeating your thoughts here in elf's LJ, acelightning!

I originally thought that the song could be fixed by rewording a few lines. Eventually came to see, and to agree that, yes, the song is totally-date-rapey, and would need a major overhall.

Another commenter in that thread reacted to acelightning's explanation by saying, basically, "What the farg was wrong with the Authority Figures of that era that they thought date-rape was preferrable to a woman willingly consenting to sex?" It's a very good point, and also worth repeating.

Having heard it several times this year, mixed in with the other Xmas music, I also have to agree that there is Something Very Wrong with making that association. I also can't hear it now without noticing, more and more, just how skeevy it sounds to the early-21^st-Century ear.

If we're gonna keep playing, "Baby, It's Cold Outside," then we need to alter the lyrics so that they reflect the sentiment that (other) people think is in the song. Namely, "What horrible winter-weather! Oh well, let's salvage the evening by making the romantic best of it." That, at least, is the vibe I get from others about how they interpret, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (because they don't bother to, y'know, actually listen to the lyrics). I think it can be modernized without making the result sound like a total kludge, and in a way that'll make people like the reboot more than the original.