Many people find the song Baby, It's Cold Outside to be a light-hearted and cute holiday duet, but is it? Let's take a look at the lyrics and decide for ourselves.
I really can't stay. (Baby, it's cold outside.)
I've got to go 'way. (But baby, it's cold outside.)
This evening has been ... (Been hoping that you'd drop in.)
So very nice. (I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice.)
My mother will start to worry. (Beautiful, what's your hurry?)
And father will be pacing the floor. (Listen to that fireplace roar.)
So really I'd better scurry. (Beautiful, please don't hurry.)
Well, maybe just a half a drink more. (Put some records on while I pour.)
The neighbors might think ... (Baby, it's bad out there.)
Say, what's in this drink? (No cabs to be had out there)
I wish I knew how ... (Your eyes are like starlight now.)
To break the spell. (I'll take your hat, your hair looks swell.)
I ought to say no, no, no sir. (Mind if I move in closer?)
At least I'm gonna say that I tried. (What's the sense of hurtin' my pride?)
I really can't stay ... (Baby, don't hold out.)
Ah, but it's cold outside.
I simply must go. (But baby it's cold outside.)
The answer is no! (I say that it's cold outside.)
The welcome has been ... (How lucky that you dropped in.)
So nice and warm. (Look out the window at that storm!)
My sister will be suspicious. (Gosh, your lips look delicious ...)
My brother will be there at the door. (Like waves upon a tropical shore.)
My maiden aunt's mind is vicious. (Gosh, your lips sure are delicious.)
Well, maybe just a cigarette more.* (Never such a blizzard before.)
I've got to go home. (Baby, you'll freeze out there.)
Say, lend me your comb. (It's up to your knees out there.)
You've really been grand ... (I thrill when you touch my hand.)
But don't you see? (How can you do this thing to me?)
There's bound to be talk tomorrow. (Think of my lifelong sorrow ...)
At least there will be plenty implied. (If you caught pneumonia and died.)
I really can't stay ... (Get over that hold-out.)
Duet: Oh but it's cold ... out ... side!
In actuality, the song is about date rape. The entire song is about a girl trying to escape the bachelor pad of a seemingly charming yet testosterone-filled man who is trying to get laid. And he just won't take no for an answer. She even refers to the fact that he may have slipped something in her drink which he dismisses by mentioning the scarcity of cabs out there.
Although when the song was written in 1944, I'm sure rohypnol had yet to be invented but there had to have been an equivalent.
On the other side of the spectrum, maybe she was asking for it. She shows up on a cold night, probably wearing her most revealing wool sweater, having drinks and paying him compliments. After all she is the one who stopped by. "So lucky that you dropped in," he says. What was she looking to do exactly? She had most likely told her parents and siblings that she was going ice skating with Rose and Ethel and would be home by eight.
I believe at the end of the song, she succumbs to his advances and he proceeds with the date rape. A happy holiday for all indeed. I beg the question: Is inclement weather a good enough reason to submit to date rape?
*Contemporary versions omit the cigarette and replace it with "a half a drink more" because I suppose that having non-consensual premarital sex under the influence of alcohol is more family friendly than smoking a non mind-altering cigarette.
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2 comments:
i think the nephew used to sing this to women at our apartment during the winter months of college
that was the funniest thing I have read in a long time. I always thought that song was about date rape myself. Any opinions on "let it snow"?
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