Advanced Search | Search All That Chat


ATC Rush/Standing Room LOGIN REGISTER THREADED MODE

Threaded Order Chronological Order
re: The creepiest classic of all: What should we do about ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside?’
Posted by: Sam890 08:46 am EST 12/21/15
In reply to: re: The creepiest classic of all: What should we do about ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside?’ - Kimmelhisway 02:55 am EST 12/21/15
You tell 'em Bruce. This PC claptrap has gone too far. Next they'll be trying to tell us there's something wrong with blackface minstrelsy and the good old songs like "All Coons Look Alike To Me". We yearn for the good old days when women knew their place and domestic violence was politely kept behind doors. We could have a laugh about lyrics referring to sexual aggression and hitting your wife if she gave you cheek - it was just all a bit of fun. I'm with you Bruce, this PC nonsense has just gotten out of hand!
reply to this message
re: The creepiest classic of all: What should we do about ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside?’
Posted by: PlayWiz 04:47 pm EST 12/21/15
In reply to: re: The creepiest classic of all: What should we do about ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside?’ - Sam890 08:46 am EST 12/21/15
It's not like they regularly play on the radio or other media that song you mention. Although years ago, when I was in London, this actress from South Africa Sheila Steafel decided it was a hoot to do a medley of old coon songs as part of her club act. As one of our classmates with us is African-American, we were outraged and very pissed of on behalf of our classmate, and we said something to the effect to the management.

It's fine to get upset with blackface, especially when one sees that even Judy Garland did a film in which she was in blackface. But unless SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE is doing a sketch in which Bill Cosby is dressed in a cute little ugly Christmas sweater and singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to a revolving door full of sweet young ladies, the song itself is not a date-raper's rhapsody, for fuck's sake!
reply to this message
re: The creepiest classic of all: What should we do about ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside?’
Posted by: enoch10 03:08 pm EST 12/21/15
In reply to: re: The creepiest classic of all: What should we do about ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside?’ - Sam890 08:46 am EST 12/21/15
have they completely stopped teaching rhetorical strategies in composition classes? do you really think anyone - other than maybe (i prefer giving you the benefit of the doubt) you - find these two things comparable? possible subtextual sexism in a song and the physical expressions of dehumanization exemplified in the jim crow laws that followed 400 years of slavery? do you really not see how insensitive, tone deaf, and insulting that is?

and anyone who'd like to chime in with some version of "oh, how pc" can i just head that off at the pass with anybody who thinks dismissing this with thinly-veiled longing for a time when blatant bigotry got more a pass is a moron. how's that for pc?

political correctness is a real thing and (i think) often a real problem no matter how misused the term might be. we don't need to call out the faulty logic in labelling this song "sexist" or "pro-rape" or whatever nonsense it is exactly that's being bandied about by applying inappropriate terminology. this argument is silly enough at just face value.
reply to this message | reply to first message
Claptrap, indeed!
Posted by: portenopete 12:03 pm EST 12/21/15
In reply to: re: The creepiest classic of all: What should we do about ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside?’ - Sam890 08:46 am EST 12/21/15
You tell 'em, Sam!

That's exactly what Bruce was saying and exactly what Frank Loesser was writing about. It reminds me of the blatant sexual aggression in GUYS AND DOLLS when Sky gets Sarah drunk in Havana and then she unleashes her dormant racial hatred towards Latinos in the bar fight. (Not to mention Loesser's thoughtlessly cruel attitudes towards gender confusion in WHERE'S CHARLEY?.)

I'm not a lover of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and couldn't care less if I never hear it again, but just because SNL fashions a (pretty funny and pointed) 20-second skit out of it doesn't mean I think it's somehow been revealed for the hateful, misogynistic screed it always was. It's always struck me as a very mid-century, slightly smarmy lounge song, not one that I would necessarily think of as "Christmassy" but not anything inherently offensive. (You could stick Bill Cosby into any song nowadays and it would shine a new and unpleasant light on the lyrics.)
reply to this message | reply to first message
re: Claptrap, indeed!
Posted by: Ann 12:36 pm EST 12/21/15
In reply to: Claptrap, indeed! - portenopete 12:03 pm EST 12/21/15
The discussion didn't start with Saturday Night Live. There have been a few articles lately about the song and how it comes across.
reply to this message | reply to first message


All That Chat is intended for the discussion of theatre news and opinion
subject to the terms and conditions. (Please take all off-topic discussion to private email.)

Please direct technical questions/comments to webmaster@talkinbroadway.com and policy questions to TBAdmin@talkinbroadway.com.



Time to render: 0.031458 seconds.