"Have pity on the unromantic, for they know not what they do."
"Have pity on the unromantic, for they know not what they do."
It’s that time of year again, where social justice warriors pour hate on the classic Christmas tune “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”—a popular song written by Frank Loesser in 1944. It is a call and response duet in which a man tries to convince a woman that she should stay the evening because the weather is cold and the trip home would be difficult. While the lyrics make no mention of any holiday, it is popularly regarded as a Christmas song due to its winter theme.
Loesser wrote the song for his wife and himself to perform at parties. He sold the song to MGM, which used it for the 1949 film Neptune’s Daughter. It was sung by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalbán, and won the Academy Award. Since 1949, it has been sung by many singers, including Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Michael Bublé, and Lady Gaga.
In recent years, however, the romantic courtship tune is being called a “rape” song, thanks in part to some misplaced, hysterical outrage linked to the Me Too movement.
The Me Too movement, with many international alternative names, is a movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault. #MeToo spread virally in October 2017 as a hashtag on social media in an attempt to demonstrate the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment.
But as the song becomes so-called “toxic,” US radio stations are removing it from their Christmas playlists, perhaps afraid of being attacked by the mob.
But, this approach to “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has little to do with protecting women. What it proves is that the younger generation completely misses the point, because of their overall ignorance of basic economics.
When the song came out, it was seen as what it is, a play in courtship. The woman in this story holds all the cards, as the man tries, as best as he can, to persuade her to stay the night.
But why is she holding all the cards?
Look no further than when the male singer shows obvious signs he is craving what she offers as a woman, remarking that her “lips look delicious,” all the while she serenely declares that her sister, well, she’ll be suspicious, while her brother will be there, standing by the door.
As Donald Symonds explains in The Evolution of Human Sexuality, sex is a female resource.
Female sexuality, by nature, is shaped by certain restraints that make it scarce. That means their sexuality is naturally more valuable. In addition, the added costs of female fertility, such as the toll it takes on women’s mental and physical health, all force women to care for their sexuality in a way men don’t.
Unlike men, whose sexuality is readily available and therefore cheap, women naturally serve as the suppliers of sex. So, it’s only natural that, for them, sex comes at a cost.
For men to get what they desire (demand), they must then offer women something that, to women, is more or at least as valuable as what female sexuality has to offer (supply). This sets the stage for the type of courtship and romantic play we see in “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
As scandalous commentator and notorious punk Gavin McInnes once explained, people who are offended by the classic Christmas duet are also disgusted by romance, because they think romance is nothing but a real-world economic transaction in which sex is the currency and the woman is the one with all the goods.
To third-wave feminists, the fact women hold this power is sickening because it implies that they are nothing but “meat” and that they serve no purpose but to satisfy men’s hunger. But, by looking at the dynamic from this perspective, they ignore that the woman really is the one dictating the rules in “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
After all, she’s the one enumerating the many reasons why she knows she shouldn’t give in to his courtship that easily, while all he does is to try to convince her by using external factors—the weather, the fact she could get sick walking in the snow, and, of course, the flickering flames in the fireplace.
What this song implies is that men are just doing all they can to offer something of great enough value so women may stay. And that, more often than not, men fail.
In “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” the woman is “playing tough” because, perhaps, she already likes him. Still, she intuitively knows he should work harder for her—otherwise, what would that say about how she sees herself?
In the end, this song is an ode to women, and a reminder they have all the power when it comes to romantic transactions. And yet, social justice warriors want this song gone, because “it’s not something I would want my daughter to be in that kind of situation,” as a radio station host told reporters when defending the decision to ban the song.
That is the very definition of foolishness!
Have pity on the unromantic, for they know not what they do.
eric.jurado@gmail.com
