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Here in the U.S., every year in
December, we listen to the same carols and winter holiday music. And every year
for the last decade or so, there has been a cacophonous controversy around the
tune, “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”
It hasn't always been always viewed this way. When it was released, it
was a playful, harmless, romantic duet. Today is has been cast as a song that
epitomizes rape culture, or at the very least, a culture of coercive sex. As a
staunch feminist, I’m told I am supposed to hate this song.
But there is another feminist lens through which to view
this ditty:
It is a song about a woman who wants to buck
societal norms.
This tune is about a woman who desperately wants to spend
the night with her partner, but can’t because it’s the 1940s and women aren’t
allowed to want sex. Or much of anything outside of a Hoover vacuum cleaner, a
washer/dryer, and a handful of Valium. Women have no sexual agency. Or, really
any agency at all.
She knows if she stays, her reputation will be tarnished.
She talks endlessly about what others will think – “My mother will start to
worry…My father will be pacing the floor…” The lyrics get darker as the
song carries on – “My brother will be there at the door… My maiden aunt's
mind is vicious…”
Of course her brother is policing her body and her
sexual choices. Not creepy at all… Does anyone believe he hasn’t taken
advantage of female “companionship” any chance he gets? But boys and men are
allowed to want and to have sex. Women who want sex are filthy trash.
Especially in the 1940s.
Of herself, she says, “I wish I knew how to break this
spell,” and, “I OUGHT to say no.” Not, “I want to say
no.”
She is enamored. She is having the time of her
overly-protected and controlled life.
Then she goes on to say, “There's bound to be talk
tomorrow… At least there will be plenty implied…”
She knows there are consequences for giving into her
sexual desire, and that those consequences don’t exist for her male partner.
Her reputation will suffer. She will be a “dirty girl.” Her partner will be
high-fived by all his friends. No vicious aunt is peering around the corner for
him. No sibling is scrutinizing his sexual choices.
This is a song about women’s lack of sexual agency at the
time it was written. She must be the brakes on their sexual relationship. She
must make him (and herself!) wait.
But after rounds of their call-and-response
duet, together, in unison, they crescendo, “Baby it’s cold outside!” –
Signifying they are on the same page.
In the end, she does say, “No.” She says “No” to societal
pressures, to denying herself what she desires, to spending another lonely
evening with her creepy brother who can’t stop thinking about the sex his
sister is having, and her catty, prying aunt. No, this evening she will spend
in the arms of her lover, curled up in front of a roaring fireplace, smoking
cigarettes, knocking back drinks, and knocking boots.
This is only a song about “rape culture” if the listener
doesn’t understand the context, time, and place - the popular culture - within
which the song was created.
Sellnow defines pop culture as “being comprised of the
everyday objects, actions, and events that influence people to believe and
behave in certain ways.”
Brummett states pop culture is “those systems and artifacts
that most people share and that most people know about.”
Through a modern lens, folks might not understand the
culture of the 1940s when “Baby It’s Cold Outside” was written. The objects,
actions, and events that existed in the 1940s don’t pertain today’s popular
culture.
This is a perfect example of a popular song’s meaning
getting lost in the translation of decades. Not only does the song not highlight
rape culture, it is a song that grants a woman agency over her choices at a
time when women had little to no agency at all. This was a feminist anthem
before there were feminist anthems.
What other pop culture references from the past lose
something through the lens of modern translation?
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