In 1944, Frank Loesser wrote the Christmas classic, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” The Christmas classic would later become widely controversial in 2018 amid the #MeToo movement, with opinions on whether this song is appropriate.
Before we can understand the controversy within the song, we have to understand the time period it was written in. Loesser wrote “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” in 1944 to sing with his wife, Lynn Garland, at their housewarming party in New York at the Navarro hotel to indicate it is time to leave politely. In 1948, Loesser sold the song to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entertainment company (MGM) to be featured in the 1949 romantic comedy “Neptune’s Daughter”, where it was then sung by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalbán. This appearance would lead to the song winning the 1950s Best Original Song Award.
Additionally, the producers of “Neptune’s Daughter” originally planned to use “The Slow Boat to China” by Loesser; however, they decided the song was too suggestive and ultimately chose “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” This is ironic due to people believing this song is not appropriate now, in 2025.
On the other hand, times have changed, and society has grown away from old stereotypes of men and women. Women are now being accepted as men’s equals in America. For this reason, the modern “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” controversy blew up.
Controversy on this song has always existed; however, in December of 2018, during the #MeToo movement, a global social movement against sexual abuse, harassment, and assault, its meaning expanded.
“It’s honestly really eerie nowadays, it makes me feel like what if that guy is a stalker,” said sophomore Aiden French.
People began to question the lyrics and started to find them suggestive of sexual assault. This happened when people began to deeply analyze the lyrics, lyrics like “The neighbors might think… say what’s in this drink?” Singer-songwriter couple, Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski, were one of many singers who recorded a more “woke” version, after calling the original wording “aggressive and inappropriate.”
The Christmas classic was first removed from radio stations in late 2018, starting with a station in Cleveland, WDOK (102.1 FM, also known as “Star 102)” in November, with Canadian stations following suit. However, many stations reinstated it after facing backlash from listeners.
The question remains whether this song is appropriate for listeners. Many artists have covered “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Similar to Liza and Lemanski, other artists such as John Ledend and Natasha Rothwell have even altered the lyrics to remove the suggestive feel.
Ultimately, when considering this song, it is essential to keep in mind the time period and the purpose of the song. The intent was never for the song to seem like a man had the intentions of raping a woman, but simply to indicate the time to leave a party politely. Although “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has now returned to radio stations, the question of whether or not this song is appropriate is still heavily debated. Although it is not discussed as much now as 2018, it is still an important topic to cover.
