Memo
To: the female species
From: one somewhat pissed off old man
Subject: Know something about history and sex
Date: December 1, 2018
A joke from a 1960s Pocono honeymoon resort comedian: Two
little children, one boy and one girl, are sitting near one another on an
airliner. The boy says to the girl, who is about seven and a couple of years
older than the boy: “look what I have, a new toy truck.”
“Little boy,” the girl replies, “I have a Barbie sports
car.”
Well, being a boy, he doesn’t want a girl to top him so he
says, “My daddy built me a swing set.”
“Little boy,” the girl answers, “I have a swing set next to
the swimming pool my father had installed.”
This goes on for a while and finally the boy is completely
frustrated. He tears down his pants and points to his little male part and
screams “well I have one of these and I KNOW you don’t have one.
The girl runs away to her mother. In a minute or so she
returns to the boy, pulls up her skirt and points to her little female part and
says: “Little boy, my mommy told me that as long as I have one of these, I can
get all I want of those.”
I really don’t give a rat’s ass if you like the joke or not.
But you should. The joke, however, is a statement about sexual relations. And
that is the woman has the right to choose where, when and with whom she wants
to be intimate. Lately, the “me too” movement has exposed sexual abuse and we
have learned it is far more common than we thought. But the “war” between the
sexes has usually defined the roles of each sex. And that can be summed up in a
three word sentence: Men pursue women.
Now I realize this isn’t true in many countries, especially
in Asia. But let’s stick to the culture here in the United States.
Since the advent of the birth control pill, women were given
the choice to have sex when they wanted it without the risk of pregnancy. It
was the beginning of the sexual revolution and even today in an era of deadly
STDs, an earlier form of birth control, condoms, is used rather than going back
to our puritan values. But while we are doing things somewhat differently,
there has been no turning back. And it still remains the woman’s choice. And
men will continue to pursue women.
I understand this, and I endorse it. Why? Because in the
courtship ritual, both the man and woman get to know one another. Now sex comes
in several flavors: the one-night stand, the friends with benefits,
recreational sex, affairs, and a course of developing true intimacy with the
idea of a long-term relationship. And frequently the partners have different
ideas of what is going on.
But the bottom line is still that the woman, other than in a
criminal situation, is in control of the decision. Now don’t get me wrong, I
applaud the goals of the ‘me-too” movement. But there are times when things get
out of hand. And the controversy over the song “Baby, it’s cold outside” is
simply way overboard.
Loesser wrote the song for his wife and himself to perform at parties. It’s intent was to advise guests it’s time to leave.
He sold the song to MGM, which used it for the 1949 film Neptune's Daughter. It was sung by Ester Williams and Ricardo Montalban and won the Academy Award for best song. Since 1949 it has been covered by many singers. Here are some of the people who have sung this duet: Dean Martin, the cast of “Glee.” Zoey Deschanel, Ray Charles, Lady Antebellium, Willie Nelson, Kelly Clarkson, Rob Stewart with Dolly Parton, and my favorite, Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer.
I
personally enjoy the song because it is so flirtatious. It’s truly a fun
reflection of the late 1940s. The man is, of course, trying to get the woman
to spend the night. Hey – news flash – that’s normal for today as
well as 70 years ago!
The main
lyric that seems to offend is the woman saying: “say, what’s in this drink?”
News Flash #2 – There were no such things as “roofies” back then.
And
let’s look at the entire lyrics. The woman is choosing to stay longer by having
a drink, smoking a cigarette and other things. She is performing a mating dance
with the guy saying things that were the norm for the time such as judgmental
aunts and worried parents. But the fact is this song has, to my knowledge,
rarely if ever been sung by teens or teen idols. It is a song for adults to sing.
So
anyhow, what aggravates me is this wanting to ban a song goes way too far because people don’t
understand history in general, the history of the song, and the values and
mores of the time it was originally performed. Mainly after the second world
war. And people were creating babies like crazy in those days. That’s why they
call people like me baby boomers.
There are many, many other songs – mostly rap music – that deserve to be censured. But not this one. So
anyhow, I simply ask the fanatical fringe of this movement to shut the hell up
and let people enjoy a funny and harmless song. Ladies, get over it!
Thanks for the platform to
speak out.
