Someone Wrote A Feminist Defense Of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" And I Don't Know What To Feel

Whatever, I'm still skipping it on Spotify.

Despite its use in one of the best Christmas movies ever, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is one of the most divisive Christmas songs ever written.

New Line Cinema

While some consider it a classic, others find the dynamic in the song to be...problematic.

☾♡ @demuresunflower

It's that time of the year, when we talk about how problematic 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' is because it's literally… https://t.co/QDaPHNPgxo

09:39 AM - 27 Nov 2017

For those unfamiliar, the song is a duet traditionally sung by a man and a woman, wherein the woman appears to be saying that she needs to go home, while the man attempts to persuade her to stay.

Funny or Die even went so far as to turn the song into a very, very dark sketch with Casey Wilson and Scott Aukerman.

Seabrooke Carder @SeabrookeN

Have you ever really listened to the lyrics of "Baby, It's Cold Outside"? Man, it's creepy. https://t.co/dfwtudy3dY

06:54 PM - 21 Dec 2015

However, a 2016 Tumblr post is making the rounds again ('tis the season), offering a feminist defense of the song.

TL;DR: Within the context of the era in which it was written, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is actually about a woman trying to exercise sexual agency.

NBC

The patriarchal society she lives in expects her to refuse any sexual advances, whether she wants them or not, so the argument here is that she actually wants to stay, but is concerned about how she will be judged by others if she does. The man in the song is offering viable excuses she could use to avoid that judgement.