I am a survivor of sexual abuse and this song does not "trigger" me. Even if it did, I would not want it banned just because I have a nasty past. It might recall pleasant memories for other people.

I don't see anything in the lyrics that point to rape. What happens at the end is open to interpretation - perhaps he had a guest room and she had a comfortable sleep.

No means MAYBE !!

Yes - this is as stupid as the "war on Christmas" crap and being offended if someone says Happy Holidays to you instead of Merry Christmas.....to all you people out there who can't find anything better to obsess about ----get a life.

the song was a husband and wife duet, a tongue in cheek performance during parties. The song was meant to be a romantic chase and generate laughter.

During the 1940s, when Hollywood celebrities attended parties, they were expected to perform. In 1944, Loesser wrote "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to sing with his wife, Lynn Garland, at their housewarming party in New York City at the Navarro Hotel. They sang the song to indicate to guests that it was time to leave.[citation needed]

Garland has written that after the first performance, "We became instant parlor room stars. We got invited to all the best parties for years on the basis of 'Baby.' It was our ticket to caviar and truffles. Parties were built around our being the closing act."[This quote needs a citation] In 1948, after years of performing the song, Loesser sold it to MGM for the 1949 romantic comedy Neptune's Daughter. Garland was furious: "I felt as betrayed as if I'd caught him in bed with another woman."[1]

I'm glad there is controversy around the lyrics. It's a good thing. You can still enjoy the song, but be mindful of how things can be misunderstood, and that also there can be a lot of confusion when dating, with not being sure about rushing into something when not quite ready, or trusting someone to be a gentleman and not take advantage. (She could stay over platonically if she's not ready, if the weather is really bad, but that doesn't seem to be the suggestion here.)

You give the political correctness crowd an inch and they’ll take a mile. The song is not offensive and even if it was who cares? The last time I checked, you’re allowed to be offensive. Freedom of speech covers things that are offensive. And quite honestly I want to offend these crybabies. I’m at war with those who would abandon freedom of speech just because of hurt feels.

from variety:

"Taken maybe a smidgeon more seriously than its creator intended, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is the story of a woman doing battle — not with a guy who won’t take no for an answer, but with the expectations of a society that won’t take yes for an answer. The most critical word in the whole piece is “ought,” as in, “I ought to say no, no, no sir.” She isn’t trying to fend off advances — she is mouthing excuses so she can “at least… say that I tried.” He won’t face judgment sneaking home, whereas she can tick off at least three family members who’ll notice when she sneaks in after hours. It’s not just the kinfolk but a nation of suspicious minds there at the door, waiting to sniff the cigarettes, booze and boys on her breath. At least two out of three of which she is explicitly the one asking for, by the way: “maybe just a cigarette more,” she requests, along with “maybe just half a drink more.” She is not being plied with alcohol — she is plying herself, with intoxicating stalling tactics she hopes will make the “spell” of romance and sexual chemistry finally out-loom the specter of the family scowling behind the porch light."

"The song has been ripe for role-reversal covers over the years… starting with its point of origin. In the 1949 film “Neptune’s Daughter,” where it was introduced, it’s first sung by Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban — but then by Betty Garrett and Red Skelton (pictured above) with Garrett singing the “male” part. Decades later, Miss Piggy took the would-be aggressor’s role in a duet with Rudolf Nureyev in a steam room. “Saturday Night Live” did a terrific spoof in 2013 with Jimmy Kimmel and Cecily Strong, adding post-coital verses where he’s trying to leave and she won’t let him. (“Are we still on for next weekend / You said you’d take me antiquin'” is a rhyme Loesser might approve of.)"

Let it go seriously. It’s all a pick and choose argument at this point.
You’ve got 50 shades of grey in books, movies and tv shows and the shit sells like heroine but have a song suggesting that I guy is pressuring his girlfriend to stay, have a drink and have sex and it’s now the National anthem for rapists.

This fucking country is a shit show because of all of the angry people and the apologist.
So what’s next Marvin Gaye’s let’s get it on? Fuck the entire Barry White collection.
No wait the entire 1960’s needs to erased music, literature, movies, politics and I’m sure since it’s probably given some these weak people PTSD
We’re no longer allowed to talk about or show anything in regards to the Kennedy assassination.

Weak ass hypocritical people grasping power by acting hurt and defenseless. Seriously I can’t wait until trump’s out office so this retaliatory insanity will hopefully stop. WTF am I saying we have a whole generation that’s permanently disabled because he was elected.?

Change who is saying what and then deconstruct it.

Just another idiotic diatribe that essentially says, "Women never want to fuck." And it's only because of men's "inappropriate" behavior that they do.

And, the song does not clearly state that this has not happened before and that is why he is encouraging her.

AND IT IS FUCKING COLD OUTSIDE!

This song creeped me out even when I was a kid.

It's just a song about human interaction. If the song was written today, it would carry through to the sex straight away. No courting, no teasing.

If you are as old as I am, the government tried to sue Ozzy Osborne because of a song they claimed caused the suicide of a kid. When Columbine happened, they tried to blame Marilyn Manson.

They're just songs. If they want to hear sexism and misogyny in songs, they need to listen to practically any song in the 60's/70's/80's.

I've been surprised by the number of people offended and outraged that other people simply don't like the song or that some radio station somewhere, probably a station they never even heard of before, stopped playing it.

I don't see the lyrics being a whole lot different from The Temptations' Ain't Too Proud To Beg

[ascienceenthusiast.com]

Hi there! Former English nerd/teacher here. Also a big fan of jazz of the 30s and 40s.

So. Here’s the thing. Given a cursory glance and applying today’s worldview to the song, yes, you’re right, it absolutely sounds like a rape anthem.

*BUT! Let’s look closer!

“Hey what’s in this drink” was a stock joke at the time, and the punchline was invariably that there’s actually pretty much nothing in the drink, not even a significant amount of alcohol.

See, this woman is staying late, unchaperoned, at a dude’s house. In the 1940’s, that’s the kind of thing Good Girls aren’t supposed to do — and she wants people to think she’s a good girl. The woman in the song says outright, multiple times, that what other people will think of her staying is what she’s really concerned about: “the neighbors might think,” “my maiden aunt’s mind is vicious,” “there’s bound to be talk tomorrow.” But she’s having a really good time, and she wants to stay, and so she is excusing her uncharacteristically bold behavior (either to the guy or to herself) by blaming it on the drink — unaware that the drink is actually really weak, maybe not even alcoholic at all. That’s the joke. That is the standard joke that’s going on when a woman in media from the early-to-mid 20th century says “hey, what’s in this drink?” It is not a joke about how she’s drunk and about to be raped. It’s a joke about how she’s perfectly sober and about to have awesome consensual sex and use the drink for plausible deniability because she’s living in a society where women aren’t supposed to have sexual agency.
And remember the context – the 21st Amendment (which repealed prohibition of alcohol) passed in 1933, and Baby it’s cold outside was written about ten years later.

Basically, the song only makes sense in the context of a society in which women are expected to reject men’s advances whether they actually want to or not, and therefore it’s normal and expected for a lady’s gentleman companion to pressure her despite her protests, because he knows she would have to say that whether or not she meant it, and if she really wants to stay she won’t be able to justify doing so unless he offers her an excuse other than “I’m staying because I want to.” (That’s the main theme of the man’s lines in the song, suggesting excuses she can use when people ask later why she spent the night at his house: it was so cold out, there were no cabs available, he simply insisted because he was concerned about my safety in such awful weather, it was perfectly innocent and definitely not about sex at all!) In this particular case, he’s pretty clearly right, because the woman has a voice, and she’s using it to give all the culturally-understood signals that she actually does want to stay but can’t say so. She states explicitly that she’s resisting because she’s supposed to, not because she wants to: “I ought to say no no no…” She states explicitly that she’s just putting up a token resistance so she’ll be able to claim later that she did what’s expected of a decent woman in this situation: “at least I’m gonna say that I tried.” And at the end of the song they’re singing together, in harmony, because they’re both on the same page and they have been all along.

So it’s not actually a song about rape – in fact it’s a song about a woman finding a way to exercise sexual agency in a patriarchal society designed to stop her from doing so. But it’s also, at the same time, one of the best illustrations of rape culture that pop culture has ever produced. It’s a song about a society where women aren’t allowed to say yes…which happens to mean it’s also a society where women don’t have a clear and unambiguous way to say no.

The point is, we’d all do better to stop having knee-jerk reactions to things that we perceive as being offensive. Take into account the context of the situation and try not to assume the worst of people.

My take is this: change channels, put in my earbuds to listen to something else, scroll past...no one is making me listen to anything...

I mean, we can find something egregious in every single thing these days...arrest those frigging reindeer for hate talk against Rudolph and his poor shiny red nose...

This is a blatant attempt 2 get an audience. I'm disappointed that even National Public Radio is highlighting this.