“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is one of those Christmas songs that really has nothing to do with Christmas — it’s just about cold weather, and also sexual coercion.
Famously, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” written by Frank Loesser in 1944, tells the story of a man and woman indoors on a snowy night; the woman repeatedly tries to depart for home and is repeatedly told that it’s too cold for her to travel. The woman, famously, asks, “What’s in this drink?” In the original score, the male part was denoted as the “wolf” and the female as the “mouse,” a predatory view of sex whereby the man must not woo but win that suffuses the entire song. “No” is never “no” over the course of the song.
The song has been defended as a narrative about a woman constructing her own excuses, as it was difficult for a woman in 1944 to stay over at a man’s house because she wanted to. However, it was also difficult for a woman in 1944 to say “no” and be heard; the song’s repeated covers over the years simply indicate how deeply ingrained in our culture is the idea (familiar from the work of Camille Paglia) that saying “no” is merely part of the flirtatious dance between the genders. Here are a few of the covers that have particularly creeped us out in recent years.
Norah Jones and Willie Nelson, 2009
Willie Nelson is by all accounts a lovely person and a legendary musician, but he is also 46 years Jones’ elder. Hearing him rasp, “What’s the sense in hurting my pride?” to the young lady he’s just served a drink is not how we want to celebrate the season.
Darren Criss and Chris Colfer, 2010
There’s something about teens in the 2010s enacting the aggressive, posturing courtship rituals of the 1940s that’s somewhat depressing, not sweet.
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, 2012
The 6 creepiest “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” covers
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