There's been in recent years some misgivings regarding this song that tends to get played a lot during the Christmas season. It is not in fact a Christmas song; it's a winter weather song like "Winter Wonderland" or "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"
"Baby It's Cold Outside" is a duet between a man who is pleading with a woman to stay home with him because, hey, it's cold outside (text) and he really, really wants to get laid (subtext but still frickin' obvious).
Meanwhile, the woman voices various objections to not staying inside.
No means no, right? But this dude just want let up, keeps pleading his case for her to stay.
Is he trying to coerce her into sex?
Looking at this song through the lens of the #MeToo movement, yeah, there's stuff in this song that can provoke concern.
"What's in this drink?"
In today's terms, that could refer to rohypnol, GBH or some other date rape drug.
When the song was written in 1944, that was not an issue.
"What's in this drink?" = "Just how much gin is in this cocktail?"
The view that the man is working way overtime to coerce a woman into having sex with him is, I think, an incorrect view.
Make no mistake. This guy really, really wants this woman to stay and it's not just for a friendly game of pinochle. But is she really just a victim of his lecherous intent? What is her deal anyway?
While the man's making the case for the woman to stay, she's covering the reasons why she has to go and none of them have anything to do with her. All the reasons she comes up with to leave have to do with what other people will think.
She voices no objection of her own against staying.
She doesn't counter his arguments.
"It's up to your knees out there."
"What? It's barely a dusting of snow on the ground."
I think the woman in the song wants to stay. She just has a lot of societal pressures she has to negotiate.
This dude doesn't have to worry about any of that. He might be horny as hell but let's face it: there's a frickin' storm out there and she actually could catch pneumonia and die.
This is the choice the woman is forced to confront: be slut shamed or catch pneumonia and die.
So she decides to stay and they cuddle by the fire fully clothed and they both fall asleep because the boy does need to work on the "gin to juice" ratio of his cocktails.
The brouhaha surrounding this song stems from people not listening. Women who are sadly but correctly always on their guard against the predatory sex habits of men can find a lot to be concerned about in "Baby It's Cold Outside". If a woman was ever slipped a drug in her drink in a bar and was subsequently sexually assaulted, "What's in this drink?" is not just a throw away line in a silly seasonal song but a harsh reminder of the constant and real threat of men who abuse sex in a violent exercise in power. Older people, even women, just don't get why "Baby It's Cold Outside" may cause anyone offense.
And younger people, women as well as men who are trying to be sensitive to the shit that women have put up with, it's great to be on your guard and be aware but they need to listen too. Not every entreaty for physical intimacy is a threat. Some of them are and be on the watch for that. Other instances are just the dance between a man and a woman before intimacy.
Maybe if "Baby It's Cold Outside" was re-made with two female singers? Would that help? Well, then here you go, an accoustic cover of Baby It's Cold Outside by Amanda Ashley Law & KiwiHiwi.
The woman in "Baby It's Cold Outside" wants to stay and its only because of unfair and inequitable pressures from society that she has to consider her options including leaving this warm house and go out to catch pneumonia and die.
Because, baby, it is cold outside.
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