This is a sensitive time for many liberal Americans who exhibit emotional outrage towards the array of subjects, comments and terms that they deem “politically incorrect” at any given time. It’s what birthed the “snowflake” culture.
The latest indignation is towards Frank Loesser’s classic hit “Baby it’s Cold Outside,” which was famously performed by Dean Martin and many others that followed because they thought it encouraged “date rape.”
And Dean Martin’s daughter shut down the outrage with just two words.
It began on November 29th – exactly a week after Thanksgiving – gearing up towards festive decorations and Christmas music.
But after listeners opposed the radio stations’ decision to do so, the radio station posted a poll on their website and Facebook to have the people vote – which for all intents and purposes was a smart business decision on their behalf.
The Facebook poll results were available to the public and out of 600 votes, it showed that 92% favored playing the song over the holidays.
This is exactly how Dean Martin’s daughter, Deana, feels about the content of the song too when she told Fox News that the backlash was, “Just insane.”
She said, “When I heard it, I said, ‘This can’t possibly be.’ You know, it’s a sweet, flirty, fun holiday song that’s been around for 40 years for my dad. He did it in ’59. But when I saw it, I tweeted, ‘I think this is crazy. What do you think?’ And then all of a sudden, it went viral.”
I think this is crazy! 🤪
What do you think?https://t.co/F4S9QVOIwy— Deana Martin (@DeanaMartin_) November 30, 2018
The diagnosis of the lyrics led to the public outrage despite the fact that societal norms were different when the song was written.
A female sings: “I really can’t stay,” to which a man responds: “But baby, it’s cold outside.”
In another part of the song, a woman is heard singing lines like “Say what’s in this drink?”, “The answer is no” and “I’ve gotta get home.”
As Mrs. Martin says, it’s supposed to be “flirty” and in no way does it incentivize men to behave in this manner towards women in a malicious way. Those that think it does are wrong.
When she exclaims, “Say, what’s in this drink?’ many of those people assumed that he slipped something in her drink like a “roofie” but that’s a reach. It could very well be that the alcohol is stronger.
Other defenders claim that she wants to stay but is not able to put it into words due to the fact that societal norms at the time preclude her from wanting to stay with him. Or, you could argue that she’s not consenting at all and he’s forcing the issue upon her.
Whatever the case, the lyrics are somewhat ambiguous and could go either way.
Given the Me Too movement over the last couple of years, this certainly complicates the intention of the song given the current era we live in, but this is where compartmentalization is key.
If this song was written today with these lyrics then there would certainly be an issue but it wasn’t and to deprive people of a classic is just wrong.
Do these same people have a problem with how Mark Twain refers to a key African American character in Tom Sawyer? Are they calling for the ban of that classic book too?
But since the Ohio radio station first pulled the plug and made national headlines, other stations across the nation followed suit.
At a California radio station, KOIT out of Bonneville, they cancelled daily playing of the song but, again, their listeners protested and the song was subsequently put back on the cycle.