PC madness reflects MeToo times as old songs come under scrutiny
PRESENTISM, the uncritical adherence to present- day attitudes, especially the tendency to interpret past events in terms of modern values and concepts, is a very apt word of the week to get the column started right here, right now.
Several hours of radio air time and countless column inches have been devoted to the moral matter du jour, whether or not to ban the Christmassy song ‘Baby
It’s Cold Outside’, due to it’s suggestive lyrics. Controversy over the song has existed for years but it has notched up a level now because of the #MeToo movement which began in the US more than a year ago in response to accusations of sexual abuse and harassment by powerful men in the entertainment industry in Hollywood and other sectors.
With the MeToo movement in ascendancy and political correctness the default position in most public debates for fear of having one’s character permanently black marked on Twitter or around the restaurant table, there is something that doesn’t sit at all well with this latest trend.
The song’s push/pull set-to is cloying, yes – the line ‘Hey, what’s in that drink’ sounding an ominous note in retrospect – but to suggest it implied rape, or anything close to it, is over-the-top and ridiculous. In America, where most of this moralistic bunkum always starts, the song has already been pulled from several stations in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the nailed on rules of consent. The reason, you ask? The predatory lyrics towards women, they say.
The duet was written in 1944 and performed over the years by scores of artists, including Dean Martin, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles and Lady Gaga.
A radio station in the state of Ohio was first to announce it was pulling the song from its play-list after receiving complaints. Several other stations across the country - and in Canada - followed suit.
A similar decision by a radio station in Colorado did not sit well with outraged listeners who voted it back on the airwaves. KOSI said that the jingle would return to the airwaves after an online poll generated more than 15,000 responses, with 95 per cent of them in favour of keeping the song.
Any song which references young, involves kissing, hints at close proximity, or worse still touching, ‘the horror’, is up for the chop, according to the wild liberalism infecting the airwaves. Songs and books with any hint of misogyny, patriarchy or racism, are all game for the chop. Bye bye several Disney films!
Take Eminem’s Stan and My Name Is, which are clearly written from the viewpoint of an alter ego and not in any way reflective of their author, as prime examples of morally dubious songs.
What are we meant to do, take a giant Tippex to history and do an erasing broad-stroke to the art of the past?
Context comes in to play. Is it wrong that women were treated like second class citizens (and still are in some cases). Of course, 100 per cent it is! It is wrong that men were the dominant force in the arts and music industries up until the past few decades, another huge Yes! But how can we learn from the mistakes of the past without being able to read about them or hear the songs.
I heard one female radio commentator, Larissa Nolan, who is a rape victim, who felt the song Baby, It’s Cold Outside was a feminist number as it championed women’s rights to have sexual relations away from an oppressive society where parents and peers would see women pinned to the wall through puritanical moral law. Hard not to agree with her.