" The lyrics have the same meaning then as now - a man not taking no for an answer from a woman, and being coercive."

He doesn't take her coat. The line is 'lend me a comb', because they've been making out and she needs to fix her hair.

Climb down off your high horse, Ginmar. You and I have been around this site a long time and I've defended you on a number of occasions, so don't come charging at me like I'm some troll who just showed up on the site.

No, she's not. Have you ever looked at the lyrics? She's not trying to get away at all. Her comments about the evening are all about what other people will think of her. It is not about her desires, it's about the cultural expectations of her. Its contained in the lyrics of the song and in the arrangement of the…

Yeah, if you examine the lyrics, she never says anything about her not wanting to stay. All her protests are about what people will talk about. Her aunt, her father, the gossipy neighbors. I always thought it was a cheeky little song myself, with her showing sexual agency in the face of cultural pressure.

"And seriously, they're both in on the fact that he's putting something in the drink? "

I can see your concern. But I think there's something to be said about people's personal interpretations/feelings about something (ie. 'the line about the drink reminds me of date rape') and saying this song is definitively about date rape. One is a personal interpretation of a lyric whose connotation has changed over…

That is, in fact, what she's referring to. In Jezebels countdown to the most offensive holiday song last year, they referred to it as the 'Midwinter Date Rape Song'.

Exactly. Good cultural analysis takes context into consideration.

I won't say a word!

You can acknowledge a song is dated and that its lyrics have different meanings in a contemporary setting, but that doesn't mean it's a song about rape. That's what really gets my goat, especially as a feminist involved in pop culture studies.

I'm totally going to go google this now.

I see it as her navigating a slut shamey culture.

I wrote a very long analysis for it for a different website a couple of years ago that I see go viral every year around this time. I think the pro-date argument is pretty hard to hold up when you listen to the duet, which of course ends in an uplifting harmony, showing that both parties are eager participants to the…

Is it a twist ending that is not in the book?

Because people insist its a song about date rape, based on the line 'say, what's in this drink' which was part of the vernacular at the time the song was written and is not, in any reasonable way, a reference to slipping someone roofies.

JFC, Baby Its Cold Outside is not a fucking song about date rape. It was written in the 40s. Some of the lyrics are dated and have different meanings/connotations today, but it was not a song Loesser wrote to sing at parties with his wife about date rape.

It really is!

Oh, I'm glad you gave her a good home. One of the problems with severely traumatized dogs is that you can manage their fear but there's no 'cure' for it. In our case, that means we have to be incredibly vigilant around Lacey and who we expose her too (she's also on anti anxiety meds, which are basically a godsend).…

It's something I can't understand either. My aunt is the head enforcement officer for the SPCA so I've seen and heard some real horror stories. It just boggles the mind.