{"id":22197,"date":"2018-12-08T08:40:53","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T13:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=22197"},"modified":"2018-12-08T10:15:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T15:15:49","slug":"baby-its-politically-correct-outside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/baby-its-politically-correct-outside\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby, It’s Politically Correct Outside…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"DoubleI must have travelled to another universe because when I awoke, the world had gone mad. Radio stations were pulling a popular, rather over-played, 74-year-old, playful holiday song because some folks thought it was about rape. Sexual assault. Or at least non-consensual sex. The media was full of Chicken Littles screaming that the cultural sky was falling if radio stations continued to play it. The song was subject of weighty opinions on editorial pages.<\/p>\n

What is going on in this strange, politically correct and apparently unhinged universe?<\/p>\n

Let me back up. Two items appeared simultaneously on my Facebook timeline this week: one was a video of a peacock strutting around, trying to win over a pea hen by flashing his tail at her. The other was news that Baby, It’s Cold Outside<\/em> was causing such a furor that radio stations were banning it. But these Facebook items are actually two aspects of the same thing.<\/p>\n

The song is a duet, a playful banter between a man and a woman about, yes, sex. But not sex as in explicit. Inferred, yes, perhaps implied, but never stated. And never<\/em> forced. The peacock video is also playful banter, albeit wordless and nothing is forced.<\/p>\n

There are a hundred or more shows on Netflix you can watch right now that include graphic nudity, sex and even rape that don’t even try to hide behind innuendo. The abysmally-written mommy-porn novel, Fifty Shades of Grey<\/a> was graphically explicit – and so popular it sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. Sex and seduction are in the Bible – read the Song of Solomon! As far as I know, no one is having these banned or burned.<\/p>\n

Is there some strange hypocrisy at work here? CBC writer Jessica Goddard<\/a> wrote,<\/p>\n

…nothing says “happy holidays” like the death of nuance and frantic institutional overreaction…
\nThe accusation that Baby, It’s Cold Outside is about sexual assault is absurd unless you isolate the entire duet down to the lines “Say, what’s in this drink?” and “The answer is no.” That ignores the lyrics that suggest that same character internally wrestling with wanting to stay (“I wish I knew how \/ To break this spell,” “I ought to say ‘No, no, no sir’ \/ At least I’m gonna say that I tried”).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Baby, It’s Cold Outside<\/em> is not pornographic or even bawdy. It’s about seduction and the age-old mating game. You know: the old tail-flashing peacock routine in the video a few tens of thousands shared without anyone being offended. You want bawdy, go listen to some madrigals or early Renaissance love songs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If people were really kerfuffled about sexually explicit lyrics<\/a> or misogynistic treatment of women, they’d have banned rap music years ago. No, this is unfathomably different.<\/p>\n

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Seduction is something that every animal engages in, in its own fashion and style, in order to mate. It’s often done through song and flashy display (consider the codpiece<\/a>) and play.<\/p>\n

Seduction is biology. And even though that upsets some puritanically-minded folks, the female – pea hen or human – isn’t a victim: she gets a choice, whether it’s because she likes the flashy tail or the guy on the sofa with the bottle of wine in his hand. Or, if she chooses, no mate at all. There’s no force, just the timeless game of seduction.<\/p>\n

The song isn’t a pro-feminist screed<\/a>, either. It’s quaintly old fashioned in a sort of lounge lizard way, so don’t read too much into it. It’s not a manifesto for or against your political views. If it must be banned, do it because like far too many seasonal songs it gets played over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over during the few weeks leading to Christmas (some folks take comfort in that repetition<\/a>, I understand).<\/p>\n

Will the same people complain if we switch the genders of the singers as in this Red Skelton\/Betty Garrett version from the movie Neptune’s Daughter<\/em>:<\/p>\n