Popular Holiday Song Cut in #MeToo Era

Cleveland's WDOK says 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' is 'inappropriate'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 3, 2018 11:30 AM CST
Radio Station Ices Out 'Baby, It's Cold Outside'
A holiday favorite isn't such a favorite anymore.   (Getty Images/Vasyl Dolmatov)

A Cleveland radio station says it has stopped playing "Baby, It's Cold Outside" after listeners said the song heard on countless holiday playlists is inappropriate. They're certainly not the first to question the song's undertones and criticize the duet, in which one singer tries to persuade the other to stay, and their exchanges include lyrics like "What's in this drink?" and "Baby, don't hold out," per the AP. WDOK-FM midday host Glenn Anderson says he recognizes that society was different when the song was written back in 1944, but he doesn't think it has a place today, especially in the era of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment. He announced on the pop music station's website this week that the song would no longer be in its around-the-clock rotation of holiday music.

"It wasn't really our decision. It's the decision of our listeners," WDOK host Desiray tells Fox 8, which reports that the radio station said it conducted a poll on its website about the song written by Frank Loesser, and that "a clear majority of respondents" thought it should be pulled from the airwaves. Sondra Miller, the CEO of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, thinks pulling the song was the right call, echoing past complaints that the song promotes rape culture. WDOK is "taking a 2018 lens on a song that was written a very long time ago," she notes. (You may not hear that song as often in Cleveland, but you'll most likely hear this one—over and over again.)

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