Baby It’s Cold Outside.
It was just a wintery song from the late forties, nothing more. A song that’s been sung during the Christmas holidays for decades. Generations grew up singing along with the radio, no one ever had issues with it. That is until now.
Now it’s the latest moral holiday debate. The victim of a # movement.
Someone or some group decides they don’t like the sound of those lyrics, that the lyrics foster a pro- rape, sexist attitude in our society. And just like that, thousands of men, women and children across the country jump on the proverbial bandwagon and demand the song be banned from the airwaves.
It’s just a song people. The lyrics aren’t and never were anything more than back and forth flirtations. I’ve read and re-read the lyrics. They’re only questionable if you read something into them that wasn’t their original intention. If you twist and pick apart the lyrics to suit whatever #movement you want to defend, sure, then anyone can make these lyrics or any other song lyrics seem offensive to some group or other.
I can’t believe Baby It’s Cold Outside was ever meant to create all this havoc or to be somebody’s latest sexist #movement. It’s just a song.
The registry is a lot like this song debate.
It was designed for one thing but thanks to a few misguided individuals with their own agendas, it has been pulled apart, twisted and bent out of shape until it’s become something totally unrecognizable from its original intent. A now infamous Psychology Today magazine article, a few misinformed politicians and a host of other characters jumped on a bandwagon declaring all “sex offenses” will henceforth be considered equally punishable by shaming on a public registry. That’s all it took, some ill-informed people whose combined voices were louder than those of the registrants. And here we are today. Registrants aren’t banned from the airwaves, but they are banned from a lot of places. And if we don’t speak up, in a unified voice, the banning will just continue to expand.
Just like the song in question, the original intent of the registry was quickly suppressed by some nay-sayers promoting their own agendas. The registry designed for law enforcement to monitor the most serious offenders has long since disappeared. In its place is a registry now built on twisted facts, misinformation, untruths and unfounded fears, all because a few people spoke up loudly and others blindly jumped on a bandwagon to show unquestioned solidarity even when they didn’t understand the facts.
As registrants and families of registrants, make 2019 the year we stand up and speak up for ourselves, educate and inform others to make the true plight of registrants across this country known. If we don’t, if we sit back thinking “someone else will do it for me”, then just like this song, we all risk being banned from more places than we have already been banned.
Thank you Kat, great post and oh so true. But actually some registrants ARE banned from the airwaves, especially those on probation. Our ability to use social media, cell phones, and to connect with others is regulated and limited. But yes, the registry has turned into the hysteria of the witch hunt. I am starting to see a desensitizing about it though. There are so many registrants, most being decent people, that it isn’t bringing quite the reaction the media and politicians would like. However, there are still things that I read online that make me feel sick with the total ignorance and hysteria still out there. So keep up great blogs coming. we have a lot of work ahead of us.
We had to discuss this I treatment/therapy. I just kept my mouth shut or I would have probably been reprimanded. I’m on the verge of being kicked out for talking back “disrespectfully”. Ugh. 6 more years.
Oh, I can assure you that Megan’s Law is astronomically worse than any song the “I AM OFFENDED” crowd decided to spin as controversial.
The registry gives anyone a free pass to promote ill-will, hate, and vilification. Actually, it’s encouraged by the media, lawmakers and local police!
The problem people fail to realize about the song is the context of the time in which it was written and portrays. At that time women were expected to say “no” even when they really did want to say yes. If they didn’t say no a few times, and just said yes right away they would be thought if as loose or “slutty”. They were worried about “what would my mom think” rather than what they wanted,and wanted to keep their reputation of being a “good girl”,so they said no a few times. This was a game between the man and the woman. Now if a woman wants to say yes, she just says yes, so when if that’s your only perspective (post sexual revolution), then the song seems “rapey”.
Well, time to move out of this utterly f*cked up country before it gets too late. This is only the beginning. People have started to lose their damn minds in the US, if this hasn’t been made clear yet. True freedom exists only overseas. It’s comical when an American visits a foreign land and realizes people are living there with more freedom than he/she has back home. Likewise, you have foreigners coming into this country and being flabbergasted at the Insane amount of laws and the people who live in constant fear of breaking them. You think this isn’t obvious to ‘thinking’ and ‘rational’ people who weren’t born here? ‘THIS’, what we have in the US these days, is NOT normal and it sure as hell isn’t freedom. Thankfully we have more people who have mentally broken away from being ‘plugged into the system’ of the US, and see the farce being pulled over the people.
Thank you, Kat! I can think of no other, more rapid, decline of a group than that of the “sex offender,” a decline unaccompanied by protests or outrage expressed by courageous defenders who have never appeared. That now has begun to change but only due to organizations like this and the persistence of individuals. As for the song, well, baby it really IS cold outside. Let’s make some warmth and start a few rhetorical fires to hot things up a bit. It’s not words that threaten me but handcuffs cutting into my wrists and being thrown into a cage that will eat up a big chunk of my life.