ANALYSIS/OPINION:
The meme that popped up on Facebook read:
“2011 — ’50 Shades of Grey’ sells 125 million copies.
“2018 — ’Baby it’s Cold Outside’ is offensive.”
To be more accurate, the popular seasonal song has actually been banned on many radio stations as a result of the #MeToo culture we are now steeped in.
As the meme brilliantly captures, the juxtaposition of the status of these two pieces of modern culture is puzzling. Just a few years ago, the nation was voraciously consuming a pornographic S&M storyline, and now the country can no longer stomach a 1940s era song about romantic flirtation?
Has our culture truly become virtuous overnight? Or have we just been duped again, pawns of political correctness run amuck?
Don’t get me wrong. People who sexually abuse and prey on others are among the worst of human beings. Rapists are the dregs of society, and I can’t even detail in this column what I think should be done to them as it is a bit graphic and gory. (But I’ll bet you can imagine what I have in mind.)
While the #MeToo movement started out as a much-needed and long-overdue reckoning for sexual predators, it has become an absurdity. Now completely hijacked by radical feminists and other activists who thrive on controlling speech according to their convoluted “standards” of what is and is not acceptable, the movement is being used as a weapon to bludgeon our collective common sense.
Think of the good that could be done if all that energy was directed toward securing justice for victims and punishment for perpetrators. Instead, it’s being used to attack and ban holiday songs? Seriously?
It’s tragic that the national focus on delivering justice has been railroaded by progressives who revel in controlling the lives of others.
I’ve always thought that the song is a bit racy. But it has never occurred to me that the man and woman were doing anything other than flirting as full and willing participants in a game they both found delightful. It’s a silly duet, for crying out loud. Lighten up, people!
This sudden attack on the classic tune isn’t just by radical feminists. Otherwise reasonable radio station managers and even “average Joe” folks are now poring over the “damning” lyrics, demonstrating how otherwise intelligent people can get caught up in social hysteria over nothing. (Oops, I’ll probably get in trouble for using that sexist word “hysteria.”) The fact that so few seem to be willing to push back against the ridiculous efforts to malign the song also reveals how easy it is for people to get scared silent.
The demonization of this one song is even more puzzling when you consider that violent rap music celebrating rape and referring to women in derogatory terms gets a pass from the progressives, just like they gave a pass to “50 Shades of Grey.” The truth is that progressives celebrate cultural sewage in the names of “self expression” and “liberation.”
The insanity of the obsession over “Baby It’s Cold Outside” should serve as a warning of how very easy it is for people to slip into group think when the drumbeat to arms becomes constant. It’s sort of like the sudden obsession with banning plastic straws.
While plastics are harming the marine environment and polluting otherwise pristine beaches, thinking we can tackle the problem by making folks drink out of deteriorating mushy cardboard tubes is absurd. As is thinking that keeping one flirtatious song off the air will do anything to end sexual abuse.
We have to stop fooling ourselves into feeling good about our “heroic” efforts when we ban flirtatious songs or drink from cardboard straws. The people who drive such inane notions are nothing more than control freaks, many of them more determined to wield power over the ignorant masses than they are in taking real action to address serious problems.
Yeah, I never liked “Baby it’s Cold Outside,” and I don’t use straws because they’ll probably give me wrinkles around my lips. (Ha ha.)
But what really bugs me is how quickly progressives and their friends in the media can manipulate the masses to participate in their sideshows of absurdity.
⦁ Rebecca Hagelin can be reached at rebecca@rebeccahagelin.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.