The neighbors might think (Baby, it’s bad out there)
Say, what’s in this drink? (No cabs to be had out there)
I wish I knew how (Your eyes are like starlight now)
To break this spell (I’ll take your hat, your hair looks swell)
I ought to say, no, no, no Sir (Mind if I move in closer?)
At least I’m gonna say that I tried (What’s the sense in hurtin’ my pride?)
The above mentioned lines have been taken from a popular Christmas song ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside.’
The song created a buzz in the USA after it was banned last week from an Ohio based radio channel Cleveland’s WDOK.
The radio channel claims the song’s lyrics are sexist. The show’s host Glenn Anderson quoted on the station’s website, “I do realise that when the song was written in 1944, it was a different time, but now while reading it, it seems very manipulative and wrong. The world we live in is extra sensitive now, and people get easily offended, but in a world where #MeToo has finally given women the voice they deserve, the song has no place.”
The controversial ban on the song comes at a time when #MeToo stories are flooding social media and our lives. Anderson is appropriate when he says that 1944 was a different time and the time we are living is completely different. Women have become more aware about the nuances of their identity, more vocal about their rights and their place in the society. A wave against gender biases is rising, stemming from the long fight women have fought, for equality.
The fact can be shocking for today’s generation that the song in question featured in a movie called Neptune’s Daughter and won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ is a song that is biased towards the view that every demand of a man should be fulfilled, regardless of a woman’s consent. The woman in the song can heard denying to be with him while the man forcefully insists her to stay. She even clearly states, no, no, no…
No is a complete phrase in itself.
It is of no surprise that WDOK has banned the sexist song. What is shocking is that the radio station has been receiving requests by the audience to remove the ban and run the song on-air.
Like in 1944, even today, most rap and hip-hop songs are usually sexist. Many of them portray a very twisted picture of women. Most popular Punjabi songs in India portray women as greedy and disloyal gold-diggers.
Who is to be blamed for such issues? Are the songwriters responsible or the audience that encourages and consumes such sexist songs? The issue calls for a debate that explores the problem in-depth, simply because sexism and patriarchy has occupied a rooted place in people’s minds.