This is the time of year where people start to harp on this song and what they think it implies and I think they are wrong:
First, the song is just good. It is smooth as silk and pleasing to listen to and to sing but that of course isn’t why people tend to criticize it.
It is the content of the song that they don’t like but what I think is missed by some is the woman is in complete control of the situation. She is being flirty and has already decided to stay before the song even starts. The rest is just them teasing and playing with each other, not someone taking advantage of someone else.
Yes there is violence against women, yes sometimes men are animals, yes all of that is true but that isn’t what is happening here. This is just a romantic fun song telling the story of two people flirting. So I think if you like the song you should enjoy it and not feel guilty. It isn’t some relic of a different era like racist WWII Bugs Bunny cartoons; it’s just misunderstood.
Different covers of it imply different things about the relationship. I wish I knew specific versions to reference, but I don’t.
In some versions, the woman sounds sincere and concerned; if she’s flirting, she’s playing it very straight. I find the song kind of uncomfortable it’s sung that way. In other versions, she’s very clearly flirting and arch and in control.
The one thing that makes me mad about the song is I can not find my perfect version of it. There’s always something off. I like the Nick Lachey one but Jessica Simpson throws it off.
The closest one I’ve like is, oddly enough, Will Ferrell and Zoey Deschanel in Elf. Shame it’s so short.
Having said that, I’ve never listened to the lyrics (I see it discussed here every year), but I dislike the song just based on the way it sounds. To me, personally, I can’t stand the two part ‘harmony’. It just sounds like two people singing their own songs that have nothing to do with each other lyrically or musically. It’s like hearing two different songs at once.
I was thinking more of the scene from GUYS AND DOLLS, where he convinces his innocent date to try a Dulce de Leche – just sweet milk, you understand; the flavor comes from, uh, a preservative – and it’s so tasty, she marvels; this would be a wonderful way to get children to drink milk, she realizes, getting a little dizzy.
I read an article recently talking about how the only drug with a proven pattern of being used in the perpetuation of date rape is alcohol–rohypnol’s documented use appears to be vanishingly rare. “What’s in this drink?” is indeed a bit of an alarming line, and if the singer plays it straight is pretty uncomfortable. If she doesn’t, though, if she sings it jokingly/appreciatively, it can sound like an experienced drinker saying Jesus, dude, you make strong drinks!
People think it’s rapey? I never even knew that. I agree with the OP that’s a wrong interpretation. It is interesting that a popular song from that era would so strongly imply … gasp! … fornication. Cole Porter’s songs, for example, were almost exclusively about sex, but maintained a plausible deniability:
Let’s do it … let’s fall in love.
According to the Kinsey report every average man you know, much prefers his lovey dovey to … court … when the temperature is low.
The mouse in Baby It’s Cold Outside isn’t being raped, but she’s pretty clearly agreeing to spend the night with a man who isn’t her husband.
I like the song well enough . . . though I do think it contains and reinforces some pretty strong gender role stereotypes that are jarring in the modern age.
I also agree that some interpretations of the song do border on creepy, but that’s about the singer more than the song.
Well, duh! If people think it is “smooth as silk and pleasing to listen to,” then they aren’t going to criticize it for that!
But there are those of us who hate it for both reasons. I think it’s a crappy song, AND I dislike the “date rape-i-ness” of it as well. Even if it shouldn’t be interpreted as such, I still would dislike it for the game-playing the female singer is doing, the “no means keep trying” message it gives.
The song is a relic of a rightly passed era when women weren’t allowed to be overt, to say what they mean, to actually let it be known they wanted sex. They were delicate flowers that had to be protected from a “bad reputation”. They had to show “plausible deniability.”
The song was in the movie “Neptune’s Daughter” and won the Oscar for best song. Here’s that version. It’s a good song. It could be done as very menacing, but usually both sides are obviously flirting.
I cannot defend it as a winter/holiday song. It’s not really all that cold outside (in the movie, it was summer in Florida. It wasn’t even remotely cold). The “cold” is just as flimsy a reason as “my maiden aunt’s mind is vicious”
I don’t even like the song, but it’s perfectly harmless. Ricardo Montalban wasn’t raping Esther WIlliams, and he wasn’t slipping her a mickey. He was trying to be smooth and seductive, and she was (barely) pretending that she didn’t like it.
If she’d really wanted to leave, he wouldn’t have stopped her. Persistence is not the same thing as rape.
I’ll second this. I hate the song from the way it sounds, regardless of the lyrics. I hate that I hear this a lot this time of year.
I hate Santa, Baby, too.
The entire mindset of the woman in the song is: “I’d like to stay, but it would look bad.” Note what her objections are:
“My mother will start to worry.”
“Father will be pacing the floor”
“The neighbors might think”
“There’s bound to be talk tomorrow”
“At least there will be plenty implied”
None of those are her objections – they are her talking about the objections of others.
There’s also “I ought to say no, no, no”
She ought to. But she doesn’t.
"At least I’m gonna say that I tried "
Here’s she’s definitely creating deniability for doing what she really wants.
Remember, the song was written at a time where staying would give you a bad reputation. Her dilemma is how she can stay without getting that reputation. (Note, too, that it’s perfectly plausible that they were not going to have sex; they could have just wanted to talk a little longer).