tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post2679336236787132792..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Baby, It's Cold OutsideAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-26774144756972300782016-12-12T13:51:24.406-05:002016-12-12T13:51:24.406-05:00Galahad is not a fun date.
His mother was, though...<i>Galahad is not a fun date.</i><br /><br />His mother was, though. There's actually a surprisingly parallel story in Malory about how he got conceived through her use of enchantments to fool Lancelot into sleeping with her. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-87261165752332692232016-12-12T13:47:07.400-05:002016-12-12T13:47:07.400-05:00The video version of the song, which was my first ...The video version of the song, which was my first encounter with it, made clear that the woman was really wanting to stay and just trying out excuses she felt like she had to get through -- underlined by her joining in the final chorus about how cold outside it was. Sung in that context, it's about a woman being freed of traditional sexual restrictions and liberated to choose for herself whether to stay with a man overnight. <br /><br />Given the era it came from, I'd have it pegged as a feminist song -- a celebration of freer sexuality and an absence of traditional limits, provided you did only pro-forma things to nod in the direction of the cultural traditions.<br /><br />But you can sing it a different way, and make it seem very nonconsensual and creepy. It's open to interpretation in a way that many songs are not. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-44148675569504886092016-12-12T12:45:05.769-05:002016-12-12T12:45:05.769-05:00Not a drug in that era, see above. Not a drug in that era, see above. Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-26304367716553992342016-12-12T12:10:37.017-05:002016-12-12T12:10:37.017-05:00I personally find that song to be exceedingly cree...I personally find that song to be exceedingly creepy. The woman is saying she has to leave but the man is trying every trick to get her into bed. Heck, the woman even says at one point, "What's in this drink?", which means the man is probably trying to slip her a drug or something!The Mad Sopranohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06310574598406502941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-82653774618450179162016-12-11T18:50:15.620-05:002016-12-11T18:50:15.620-05:00The tone goes right back to pre-modern novels. Th...The tone goes right back to pre-modern novels. The background in the old culture is an absence of reliable birth control and an absolute social disaster in wait for any woman who gives in outside the protections of marriage. If life were simple, any man who tried to put pressure on her would be an unambiguous villain. In fact, though, it's a safe bet that the audience is every bit as ambivalent as the wavering maiden, and quite sympathetic toward the guy who is pushing a feel-good intuitive impulsive quest for pleasure and fulfillment instead of bloodlessly acting the eunuch saint. Galahad is not a fun date.<br /><br />Fast-forward to today, when no young woman faces very likely social or medical consequences, and suddenly it's all about rape? This low-key persuasion works only if the woman actually feels pretty safe and is genuinely tempted. This isn't some guy who trapped her in an abandoned building in the middle of the night. The tone is more like someone encouraging her to blow her diet and eat this incredible cheesecake. If she's neither obese nor in danger of dying from diabetes in the next couple of days, why would we want to jump to the conclusion that we're looking at the violence inherent in the system? Maybe she just needs to grow up and little and learn to resolve her conflicts in her own head instead of projecting them onto her companion. Is this a guy who tries to undermine her best instincts for herself? Dump him. Is he a guy who encourages her to lighten up and get in touch with her most fulfilling desires? Maybe that's what she needs. Of course, in sexual relations, there's always that background worry: is he someone who will use her physically and abandon her, or is he fatherhood material?Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-25454751136799423862016-12-11T18:46:26.998-05:002016-12-11T18:46:26.998-05:00Ooh, I'll have to be on the lookout for that. ...Ooh, I'll have to be on the lookout for that. It would be a fun thing to push up before an SJW, wouldn't it?Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-27659592388200830532016-12-11T16:18:11.492-05:002016-12-11T16:18:11.492-05:00Ha ha. My wife bought a red door mat that says &q...Ha ha. My wife bought a red door mat that says "Baby, it's cold outside" to match the red Christmas wreath she bought for the front door. She hasn't seen any articles about the song's controversy and I don't have the heart to say anything to her.<br /><br />The version of the song I saw circulated with the controversy is with Ricardo Montalban. Maybe it's sjw projection of their internalized racism towards swarthy foreign invaders?Boxtyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04371034064849356356noreply@blogger.com