Baby it's Cold Outside

The year is 2004. George W. Bush is president, Britney is married to K-Fed, and the iPod Classic is the ultimate Christmas gift. But anyone about to upload Baby, It’s Cold Outside to their MP3 device might think twice after reading an article published by Canada’s National Post on December 20th, which argued for the song’s immediate ban from Canadian airwaves. Written by Rob McKenzie and Joe Bodolai for their humour column, the piece is widely regarded to be the first to publicly question some of the song’s lyrics by stating, “the song in question has a lovely melody but it’s an ode to statutory rape. In sum, the man gets the girl drunk amid her protests so he can take advantage of her.” Since this takedown of the song was written with a sarcastic tone, the piece was widely viewed as tongue-in-cheek. But this marked the beginning of countless thinkpieces cross-examining the song’s controversial lyrics. So is this 1940s festive favourite really just a thinly disguised celebration of sexual violence? Let’s take a closer look… This episode was written by Rory Boyle  This is a Broccoli Production  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices