Disclaimer: These opinions are that of my own and in no one way are intended to be taken offensively or to be viewed as ignorant. This is strictly my opinion that I am choosing to share to continue this conversation of controversy and allow an open platform for thoughts and ideas regardless of popularity.
We live in a world where "Baby It's Cold Outside" has been the trending news story for the past few weeks despite being written in 1944. We don't always know international relations, battles abroad, and continental uproars, but by this time in the season, we know all of Frank Loesser's lyrics. For starters, I am truly amazed at the airtime this song has taken up. We must truly be beginning to understand world peace or we must truly care nothing of the sorts to be spending millions of dollars in the production costs of a song analysis.
My first question about this song is really "Who is actually talking about this?". As this time of year started sneaking up and of course through working retail during December, I have heard this song more than I have ever truly wanted to hear any song. With that being said, I remember asking my coworker, "Why are we playing this song, isn't it controversial?". Then, after thinking about it, I realized it is partly only controversial because the New York Times told us it should be. Our "news" and media outlets often hold greater influence on our opinions than we often like to believe.
The main opposition in regards to this song is that it's rapey. It sets the scene of seduction as the male voice lures the woman to spend the night with him, drink from which she doesn't know what's in her cup, and avoid traveling back home. The funny part is, the same people freaking out over the scandalous nature of this song are the same ones blaring rap music that covers sexual assault, domestic violence, and stereotypical gender norms. It plays in our Zumba classes, the car radio, and follows us through our clothing aisles. And now, we know all the words.
As a freshman in college, I am warned to watch my drinks and be careful who I am with on an almost weekly basis. Hearing the song made me almost laugh that more than 70 years ago, women still had to watch their drinks. It's truly terrible as a society, but at the same point, maybe that isn't it. Maybe we are reading far too much into this all together. Maybe our cultural arrogance has led us to overlook these troubling ideas in ignorance. Maybe we'll never know exactly what the author meant.
However, here are a couple takeaways.
1. We need to stop over analyzing sometimes and enjoy the pieces of our childhood we fell in love with before CNN corrupted our views of them.
2. If we're going to be critical over "Baby It's Cold Outside", then let's look at the rest. Let's look at our recent playlists and most listened to songs. How are the portrayals in these songs of sex, drugs, and alcohol influencing the way we see situations in our lives and how our viewpoints have been diluted due to what we fill our lives listening to?
3. We really need to see what is actually going on the world, because as someone with no time to watch the news, I have heard about this song more times than I've skipped it on my radio but near to no understanding of what is taking place in the Middle East. This cannot continue to be our priority.
4. How are certain messages ignored in our society? Do we turn a blind eye to rape jokes and stereotypes that warrant unwanted behavior? If we have heard this song for the past 70's years and never have thought about the context, what other pieces of rape culture are we unconsciously allowing?
5. How do our friends and media how we look out for and support different issues? Would we have noticed the controversy if it wasn't brought to our attention? How many of our opinions are just those brought on us by others?
