The left’s assertion there is rape culture ravaging the West can now (if it weren’t already) be put to bed—courtesy of the left itself. Recently, a Minneapolis-based duet came out with a new version of the 1944 song “Baby It’s Cold Outside”, rewritten to raise awareness about the issue of defining consent. The new version, written and performed by Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski, cleans and scrubs all the “rapey” grit—which is to say the romance—from Frank Loesser’s classic lyrics.
The usual suspects (Vox, HuffPost, NPR) predictably praised this “update,” then continued to analyze the original’s “explicit” and “screwed up” lyrics. Vox preambled its analysis like so: “For every think piece calling it a ‘date-rape anthem,’ there’s a corresponding ‘Oh, come on’ take about how oversensitive ‘social justice warriors’ are killing romance and seduction and taking the song’s lyrics out of context.”
Yes, you are, Vox. When you are not critical of Jay Z rapping the racial epithet-laden “Dirt Off Your Shoulders” at a Hillary Clinton rally, but jump on the bandwagon criticizing a holiday, cozy-up-by-the-fire tune for being “rapey,” you are clearly misdirecting your sensitivities. In turn, you reveal your political agenda: piggybacking on the attack against traditional, heterosexual romance—and Christmas, too—to theorize about rape culture being alive and well in the West.
But this is about something else as well—something the song’s critics, I doubt, intended. In this trivial attempt, leftist outlets like Vox and musicians like Liza and Lemanski have inadvertently demonstrated that rape culture is not alive and well in the West. Even if it were, Vox and friends would be enablers of it, due to them carelessly conflating a serious crime with the consensual courtship of two adults in a goodnatured holiday tune.
This controversy really comes down to this weird war on Christmas.
Why this conflation? Because, as Gavin McInnes puts it, “the supply of bigotry [in the West] does not meet the demand.” As a result, cuck journalists, liberal-minded artists, and aspiring victims go to great lengths scouring and parsing remnants of our popular culture that ostensibly condone sexual assault or the oppression of women. While there is material like that in our culture, the left typically projects it onto whiteness.
Since the supply of white male awfulness isn’t large enough, petty condemnations of pop cultural artifacts like “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” rear their ugly head, contributing to the ongoing systematic, weaponized attack against white people you witness in the establishment media. Furthermore, it’s another example of politically correct types trying to take the fun, the sexiness, and the joy out of seduction and all things that make men and women happy.
“I’ve always had a problem with the song [Baby It’s Cold Outside],” quibbled Lemanski. “It’s so aggressive and inappropriate.” Of course, if you watch the original clip from 1949’s Neptune’s Daughter, this “toxic masculinity”-inspired interpretation will not stack up. I won’t delve into an analysis of the scene because I would just be stating the obvious for the majority of readers. Regardless, you can watch McInnes do it brilliantly here.
Ultimately, the subtext of Vox and Lemanski’s criticisms is clear: they are disgusted by the traditions of romance, of love, of a confident man wooing a coy woman with a little derring-do. Shockingly, no’s can sometimes mean not now, but maybe if you work for it. That’s the game of love. But the left hates that. It would rather men and women be at odds with each other and take all the sexual tension out of their trysts.
This controversy, ultimately, doesn’t raise awareness about social issues. It fuels the contempt felt between the sexes.
Of course there are times when “no means no” and a man should, at that point, leave and go out into the cold. But “Baby It’s Cold Outside” is about a femme sizing up a beau’s interest in her. If you are intellectually honest and can read between the lines, you will detect that the female here wants to preserve her chastity, as if to say “I’m not easy. If you want me, you need to prove it and show me you are worth it.” When the man passes different stages of the test, the woman concedes to stay—for a moment—then she resists again. It’s a game. It’s fun. It’s romantic.
Rape culture does exist, of course: in U.S. prisons; certain countries in the Middle East; it’s been imported into parts of Europe with the migrant crisis, and at the US-Mexico border (even HuffPost admits this). But in civil society here in Canada and the United States, the majority of rapes that go public tend to be fabricated or overblown, undermining the actual victims that are raped in our countries. When rape victims come forward, accused rapists lose their jobs, are publicly shamed, and get arrested. When the evidence is there, they usually get convicted.
Leftists deep-down know this. But most of them received a degree in bitching, so they make it their duty to pick apart Western culture to validate their theories. In turn, their tireless efforts are misguided and often lead to phony criticisms such as this, causing mass hysteria in some cases. Again, this happens because the demand is not there, so sites like Vox latch onto these “controversies” like they’re the latest jihad.
“Aggressive” masculinity at work. Ms. Leigh must hate it.
They deem it outdated that women should preserve their chastity and that men should demonstrate persistence in pursuit of her. Those two qualities are what the sexes used to admire about each other. The left, however, does not want admiration between the sexes; it wants contempt and disrespect.
Fortunately, we have desperate critiques of popular culture to remind us of this reality: the West Is, indeed, The Best. This type of social justice acrobatics, symptomatic of the “Baby It’s Cold Outside” brouhaha, ultimately disproves the Left’s assertions about rape culture in our very, very tolerant area of the world and makes our arguments against the alleged phenomenon that much stronger.
And for that—Vox, Liza, and Lemanski—thank you and Merry Christmas.
Footnote: As I write this article, my girlfriend is watching the clip from Neptune’s Daughter next to me and insisting I “do that more” to her. “Do what?” I ask, goading the expected answer from her. “Be a gentleman; show me you care,” she responds with a pout. If that’s rape, more men, including myself, should be guilty of it.
Read More: “Rape Culture” Was Manufactured To Wage An Unjust War Against Men
Leave a Reply