By 11:59 Thanksgiving night the Christmas lights blaze, classic Christmas music overtakes the radio stations, and the invasion of the holiday spirit officially begins. It’s become a sort of Holiday tradition to people all over the U.S., tuning into your local radio station and singing along to awfully upbeat and cheery Christmas songs. This activity has always been an innocent part of getting into the Christmas spirit, but as of lately, Christmas songs that had been viewed as staple parts of the season have taken on a darker context.

At the beginning of 2017 the #MeToo movement began, this movement was made to bringing attention to sexual harassment and assault against women. Dozens of men in multiple industries were accused and convicted, and an age of social awareness began. This movement made everyone conscious that women would no longer remain silent when they are disrespected and abused, and girls everywhere will be forever thankful for the start of this new age. However, there will always be a group who takes it too far.

As a result of these overanalyzing and sensitive groups, the classic winter song “Baby it’s cold outside” by Dean Martin has fallen victim to multiple radio bans, due to the seemingly ‘creepy’ male lead in the song. What people fail to realize when listening to this holiday song and when getting themselves riled up, is the fact that the song was written in the 1950’s. The lyrics were written in a very different time then our current era of female liberation, and when you see articles slamming the classic song, they all seem to fail to take the time period into consideration.

During the time this song was written, women weren’t allowed the freedom to engage in any form of interaction with men. Hence, the women’s comments of, “I ought to say no” and “At least I can say that I tried.” Essentially the women in the song is saying that she shouldn’t stay with the man, but continuously convinces herself to stay for a little longer.

Theres also been the question of whether or not this ‘war’ on the Christmas classic is just media generated outrage, which is what it sounds like. Unfortunately, there are actually people who believe that the song should be banned from the radio, and they’ve even made petitions against it. Such as a listener poll on the WDOK website (a Cleveland radio station website) where some viewers asked for the song to be removed.

According to Deana Martin (the late Dean Martin’s daughter) in an interview by Fox News, expressed her confusion with the outrage she’s heard over the song and shares that her father would be confused as well. According to her, its just a flirty and fun song about a man trying to a convince a woman to spend more time with him.

I agree that this song is a bit outdated, and the message is no longer conveyed in today’s society. But, not every song needs to be analyzed when it’s played, and I think it’s about time we sit back and enjoy ourselves. Its time we end this war on “Baby its cold outside” and just listen to it for what it is, a lighthearted Christmas song.