An Ohio radio station will no longer play the song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” after it decided that the Christmas classic had “no place” on its holiday playlist.
Cleveland’s Star 102 FM reportedly pulled the song after listeners found its 1944 lyrics problematic.
The song, written by Frank Loesser and ordinarily performed as a duet between a man and a woman, has been slammed for its treatment of consent.
HuffPost previously reported that it was given a revamp in 2016 to “emphasize the importance of consent.”
At the time, singer-songwriters Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski told CNN they felt the original was “aggressive and inappropriate.”
Star 102 FM host Glenn Anderson wrote in a blog post that he initially “didn’t understand why the lyrics were so bad” until he read them.
“The world we live in is extra sensitive now, and people get easily offended, but in a world where #MeToo has finally given women the voice they deserve, the song has no place,” he wrote.
Following the decision, the radio station started a poll on its Facebook page asking whether the song should be played, with 94 percent of respondents answering yes.
Speaking to Fox News, the president of Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, Sondra Miller, said she supported the decision to give the tune the flick.
“It really pushed the line of consent,” Miller said of the song. “The character in the song is saying ‘no’, and they’re saying well, ‘does no really mean yes?’ and I think in 2018 what we know is consent is ‘yes’ and if you get a ‘no’, it means ‘no’ and you should stop right there.
Comedian Jen Kirkman responded to the controversy surrounding the station’s decision, tweeting that the song “seems odd now not cuz [sic] it’s about coercing sex but about a woman who knows her reputation is ruined if she stays.”
“If you want to be outraged, be outraged about what the song is actually about ― the double standard in regards to sex that women face and how nothing much has changed,” she tweeted. “And then enjoy the song. It’s a delight.”