Over three years ago it was the “controversial” Starbuck’s cup (the virtual espresso-shot heard ’round the world!) and other social media related musings that I documented in this blog https://nerpribyl.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/half-full-half-empty-or-red-social-media-with-whip. This year it is the resurgence (as this is not a new conversation) over whether we should be offended by the lyrics to Baby It’s Cold Outside, a song written when my father was in junior high school. I’ll acknowledge that I felt the lyrics were a little creepy while watching a high school duet of it about a decade ago. In reality it’s not so much about the words, it’s the innuendo that some performers give to the line “what’s in this drink?” that felt a little awkward and might I say “dated”. Imagine that, a song written in 1944 that doesn’t reflect our evolved social norms.
It seems that with our ability to communicate with the masses (at 2 am while alone) we somehow have become emotionally lazy. We can jump off and on a social media bandwagon pretty quickly and with little thought. For many it appears this is their only form of exercise. This most recent created controversy has had radio stations polling listeners as to whether or not this song should be played, increased the number of downloads of the song and resulted in massive Google searches of the lyrics. There is a sort of self righteous superiority in the Me Too era to feel like you’ve really made a difference in the lives of others by removing a specific song from your holiday playlist. All of this energy keeping people distracted from real topics of the day. It’s generated numerous hilarious memes and made for what some believe are “meaningful conversations”. Nothing says Christmas like a polarizing topic!
This hypersensitivity has bled over into critical analysis of annual holiday televised events such as Rudolph and Frosty. Lets be honest if this is the first year you realized that Rudolph’s flying coach was a complete dick than you should make sensitivity training part of your 2019 New Year’s resolution. A generation of school PE teachers fashioned themselves after this character.
This morning as I woke up to early morning news (but thought I was still dreaming) the anchor was reviewing the results of a poll indicating that people favor Santa being presented as gender neutral (no interview with Mrs. Claus in the broadcast on this topic) and others thinking he needs a trimmer physique. That’s what we do to the guy who is arguably the world’s greatest philanthropist! We generate polls that encourage fat shaming and we accept it as part of the “news”. Surely this is why Walter Cronkite was cremated, so he would not constantly be rolling over in his grave. Though we spend a fortune ensuring kids have an abundance of antibullying curriculum lets attack the fictional guy about his weight issues. Next year lets get in his business over having fur on his coat or how his milk and cookie habit is dismissive to the vegans, the lactose intolerant and the gluten-free among us. Lets pledge to take all of the magic and fun out of the season! After all, we’re adults now and some guy in a sleigh (the poll indicated that was an outdated transportation mode) simultaneously delivering gifts to children worldwide in one night seems childish. My own adult children will tell you that the one message they received repeatedly from me as kids was “don’t lose your imagination”. However there seems to be some idea that being a grownup is all about being serious and why not make children into little adults and spoil any fun or magic that previous generations had by just saying “spoiler alert” in the Delivery Room when they are born and fast-track them onto cynical adult thinking immediately?
I want to feel the power of being the catalyst of a conversation that launches a thousand memes or is the temporary water cooler topic. With each song I hear or holiday tradition that occurs I listen with great sensitivity and poke it with all of the journalistic acumen I can muster from my unused Mass Communications degree.
My easy mark came as a post yesterday on Facebook, footage of Do They Know it’s Christmas? I was immediately struck by the youthful appearance of the musical artists who provided the soundtrack to my college years. It was the 1985 closing to the Wembley Stadium Live Aid concert performed by the supergroup Band Aid. While even in the days before social media people questioned the wisdom of the lyric “There won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas” that’s simply too easy. Yes, there is snow in Africa but their winter is June-August, making the lyrics as obvious as “There won’t be snow in Malibu this Independence Day.” While there are large pockets of Christianity throughout Africa, there are many locations where there is little Christian influence. So to answer the musical question “Do they know it’s Christmastime at all?” I would say “No. Absolutely clueless.”. That being said, I would not consider making the receipt of charitable aid such as food and clean water contingent on whether or not they know about Christmas. That’s simply my opinion and not what I consider worthy of long diatribes.
Maybe just chalk it up to the self-absorption of the eighties but the line I find hard to believe goes unchallenged in a “Christmas song” and even more ironically one that was arguably the largest charitable music effort ever, is Bono’s line “Well, tonight thank God it’s them instead of you!” Even in a non-Christmas song that seems like one of the most callous remarks ever. Perhaps I am simply ahead of my time, the song was written in 1984 (40 years after Baby It’s Cold Outside) so perhaps in 2058 we can get around to rectifying this atrocity. After that I can expand on how ungrateful it sounds to act like “only” getting the gift of life is somehow being shortchanged.
Better yet, we can all relax a little and not hold the artistic efforts of the past to our standards of today. Perhaps we can commit to not taking ourselves or others too seriously or song lyrics too literally. Maybe we would be best served by not feeling compelled to convince others that they need to feel the same way about everything that we do. Enjoy the season, whatever it means to you and celebrate every day for the gift that it is. May the music of the season remind you of your past and my sincere good wishes that you can enjoy many more years of merry making with a song in your heart.
nerpribyl 