In the wake of a decision by a US radio station to ban the Christmas song ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside,’ the BBC has published a report asking whether several more songs should be added to the list to reflect the ‘wokeness’ of 2018.
Star 102 Cleveland decided to ban the song, saying that it was ‘at odds’ with the #MeToo movement, because the lyrics may be interpreted as date rape. The station took the decision despite a poll showing overwhelmingly that people disagreed with the idea.
“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.” a statement from the station read.
In response, many argued that the song actually empowers women.
"Written at a time when seduction was not synonymous with sexual assault"..https://t.co/Q1chjuiZRw
— Skippy (@jinksterz) November 30, 2018
Frank Loesser wrote the song for his wife (Lynn Garland) and himself to perform at parties. The "mouse" wants to stay with the "wolf", and is trying to satisfy any and all objections, while preserving her "reputation" to family and neighbours. Subtle, which was the humour.
— Jonathan Giggs (@JonathanGiggs) November 30, 2018
A Cleveland radio station has removed "Baby It's Cold Outside" from its Xmas playlist because of the #metoo movement. May I state to the millennial generation complainers who lack any sense of subtly: IT IS NOT A SONG ABOUT DRUG RAPE! #ffs
— Michael Stafford (@Loogan640) November 30, 2018
Not BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, however, who seriously posited the notion that the song embodies everything ‘evil about America’:
Baby it’s Cold Outside was the song that summed up all that was evil about America for Sayyd Qutb, the Egyptian who became an inspiration for Al Qaeda. https://t.co/pGBxzcbs7A
— Jeremy Bowen (@BowenBBC) December 1, 2018
The rejection of the political correctness reading of the song by most also failed to prevent the BBC from suggesting that other Christmas songs should also be put on the ban list.
Among those suggested include ‘Fairytale of New York’, for its use of the words ‘slut’ and ‘faggot’, which the BBC actually edited out in 2007, but were then forced to edit back in after complaints from listeners.
The BBC article also argues that Jingle Bells should be considered for a ban because “the song was originally performed in blackface in a minstrel show.”
“Before you tweet ‘PC gone mad!’ in all caps, read the following information first.” the article sardonically notes.
Indeed, despite being publicly funded, the BBC has a history of banning anything it decrees to be offensive, including songs by The Beatles and The Kinks.
The BBC has always pushed a prudish, puritan attitude, treading on anything that dares to step outside the safe and sterile confines of what it, the establishment, considers acceptable, often to the detriment of truly progressive music and culture.
In many ways, institutions like the BBC have paved the way for the phenomenon of hypersensitivity we see today. The established puritan attitude combined with a more recent awareness of ‘wokeness’ among a large demographic of its audience has led to a bizarre environment where once again it isn’t considered ridiculous to suggest banning things such as the song ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside.’
And it isn’t just Christmas songs that are being reinterpreted. Comedy is also subject to this insanity, as is sports, entertainment, and practically everything, even Wall Street careers.
Meanwhile, openly misogynistic modern songs are, for the most part, ignored by the same crowd because they are marketed as cool and edgy, and it does not appear as smart or revelationary for ‘woke’ virtue signalers to ‘out’ a hip hop song, as it does for them to reveal the sexism/racism/homophobia they have interpreted in a song from 20-50 years ago.
So Blurred Lines was fine but Baby It’s Cold Outside is offensive.
Y’all are wild.
— Krissy Morrison (@ItsKrissy) December 2, 2018
You better shut down every station that plays rap
— NeverQuit (@KyleJon62527534) December 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/Deuceswild32/status/1068621110311297025
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