'˜Date rape song' Baby It's Cold Outside banned
WDOK Christmas 102.1 said the lyrics were predatory as a man tries to stop a woman from leaving a party despite her repeated protestations.
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Hide Ad‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’, which was written by ‘Guys and Dolls’ songwriter Frank Loesser in 1944, was not suitable in the age of #MeToo, said the station’s hosts in Cleveland Ohio.
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Hide AdThe decision has sparked a debate on social media and a poll of 600 people on the station’s Facebook page found that 92 per cent of people thought the song was fine.
Midday host Desiray said that they pulled it from their around-the-clock rotation of Christmas music after a call from a listener who objected.
She said: “People might say, ‘Oh, enough with that #MeToo,’ but if you really put that aside and read the lyrics, it’s not something that I would want my daughter to be in that kind of a situation. The tune might be catchy, but let’s maybe not promote that sort of an idea.”
‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ has been covered by Lady Gaga, Tom Jones and Dean Martin among others and featured in the children’s film Elf, which stars Will Ferrell. The woman sings: “I ought to say, no, no, no sir.” The man replies: “Mind if I move in closer?”
Her other lines include: “Say, what’s in this drink?” The man ignores the question and replies: “No cabs to be had out there.”
When the woman says “the answer is no” the man responds: “But baby, it’s cold outside.”
Website Urban Dictionary defines ‘Baby, it’s Cold Outside’ as a ‘Christmas Date Rape Song’.
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Hide AdBut commentators have said that the song was from a different time and that women were not allowed to spend the night with a boyfriend in the 1940s.
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Hide AdComedian Jen Kirkman said it was not about coercive sex but a woman “who knows her reputation is ruined if she stays”.
Glenn Anderson, another host at the radio station, wrote in a blog post that although the song was written in a different time the lyrics felt ‘manipulative and wrong’.
He wrote: “The world we live in is extra sensitive now, and people get easily offended, but in a world where #MeToo has finally given women the voice they deserve, the song has no place.”
Sondra Miller, president of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, said that “in 2018, what we know is consent is ‘Yes’ and if you get a ‘No’ it means ‘No’ and you should stop right there”.