'Star Trek's William Shatner Defends "Baby It's Cold Outside"

It's the holidays and that means Christmas music pretty much 24-7. But when it comes the silencing [...]

By Nicole Drum

It's the holidays and that means Christmas music pretty much 24-7. But when it comes the silencing of the controversial "Baby It's Cold Outside," from one radio station, Star Trek star William Shatner is speaking out in defense of the holiday classic.

With increased concerns that "Baby It's Cold Outside" has lyrics that promote rape culture, many radio stations across the United States and North America have pulled the 1944 classic from holiday rotation. Among them is CBC radio, a move that prompted Shatner to take to social media to defend it by encouraging fans demand the song be played.

"Call in to CBC radio all day and get them to play 'Baby It's Cold Outside' over and over until midnight," Shatner wrote.

Of course, Shatner's commentary didn't stop there. When fans questioned him on his choice to pick up this particular cause, the former Captain Kirk fired back with his take that people need to stop judging the older song with contemporary takes.

"I would think that censorship of classics because certain "types" need to judge things through their own 2018 myopic glasses and demand they be stricken from history is important," Shatner wrote. "Or is this 1984 only 34 years too late?"

For those who need a little frame of reference, "Baby It's Cold Outside" has been a topic of concern for a few years. The song, written by Guys and Dolls writer Frank Loesser in 1944 is a duet between a man and a woman with the general conceit of the song being that the woman wants to leave, but the man wants her to stay and is coming up with every possible excuse for it. Of particular concern is the line "Say, what's in this drink?" that some interpret as being an allusion to the man drugging the woman's drink -- something that some read as being a bit too close to a suggestion of date rape for comfort.

While there are those who argue that the song is more lighthearted than that, with both the man and female parts being consenting adults in the song's storyline -- and Shatner went so far as to share a video of the song's original "music video" from 1949 -- enough people have spoken out resulting in the song being pulled, at least temporarily.

As for Shatner's campaign, while it's unclear if he directly influenced things or not, CBC did restore the song to its lineup, but that didn't stop Shatner from taking one more shot at the people who supported the song's removal.

"I'd still call and request the song be played just to stick it to the Myopia Censorship Club Members!" Shatner wrote.

Where do you stand on the "Baby It's Cold Outside" debate? Let us know in the comments.

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