Tag Archives: Sexual Harassment

General, Movies, Music

Times change…

In this era where sexual harassment has become something everyone is far more sensitive to -thankfully!- there are things from the past that are being looked at with fresh eyes.

One of them is this song, Baby It’s Cold Outside…

This is the first appearance of the song in the 1949 film Neptune’s Daughter and, yes, that’s Ricardo (KHAN!) Montalban singing!

The song is one of those very big Christmas songs that has been covered by many, many singers over the years since its release.  Here’s another version, by Dean Martin, which I’m embedding below only because it offers the lyrics to the song…

What’s the song about?  Easy: Sex.  Here we have a guy and a gal together in the guy’s apartment/home and the gal wants to head out but the guy wants her to stay over, and its not so they can finish off the latest New York Times crossword puzzle.

Yes, Baby It’s Cold Outside is a Christmas sex song!

Here’s the thing though:  Is the song really an innocent ode to having good ol’ fashioned sex or is this song about… sexual coercion?  Date rape?

Kim LaCapria at snopes.com offers an examination of this song and the opinions about it, especially in these times:

Is Baby It’s Cold Outside about date rape?

As per usual, I don’t want to spoil everything in the linked article, but I will offer some analysis/notes of my own, some of which can be found in the article above.

First, the song clearly presents a woman who is, at least as the song starts, not interested/wanting to stay with the man.  The man, on the other hand, is clearly horny and wants the woman and the line “Baby, it’s cold outside” is his attempt to convince her to stay, among other things.

As the song progresses, the woman notes her mother and father will worry and, if she were to stay, she worries what the neighbors will think.  She’s offering multiple reasons for leaving while the man comes closer, offers her drinks, tells her there are no cabs to be found, etc. etc., all in the attempt to get her to stay the night with him.

Is it indeed sexual coercion?  Or is the song meant to be playful, with the protagonists of this song -both the woman and man- really wanting to get it on and we’re given a “wink wink” view of sexual politics, the woman playing hard to get -but not too hard to get- while the guy has to smooth talk his way to get to where they both want to go…

Here’s the thing, and I posted it clearly in this particular blog’s title: Times Change.

A short while back, and in another blog entry entitled Time Passes and Things Change (gee, how about that?!) I wrote about seeing the opening minutes of the western comedy Waterhole #3.  That film, which featured James Coburn as the protagonist, involves a search for missing money.

I like James Coburn.  I think he was a great actor and he appeared in many fine films, as well as the occasional dog.  Waterhole #3 isn’t one of his better known films, but it is an example of how sexual mores were different in the past versus what we have in the present.

While one could make a case that Baby It’s Cold Outside isn’t quite as dark a song as some view it now, there is no doubt, viewed from today, that the sexual “seduction” scene in the early parts of Waterhole #3 is rape.

Here’s what I wrote about the movie and the “seduction” scene between James Coburn and Margarete Blye’s characters in the film:

Billee (Margarete Blye) finds Cole (James Coburn) in her barn, with his pants down (I’m not entirely sure why he isn’t wearing his pants…I suppose that was meant to be part of the “fun”), and he corners her (“humorously”), she tries to fight him (“humorously”), he pulls her down to the ground (“humorously”), he starts kissing her (“humorously”), and then, but of course, she’s somehow charmed by his actions and succumbs to the passion.

I then added this: Holy shit.

Mind you, this happens within the first approximately fifteen or so minutes of the film and, no, the Billee and Cole characters do not know each other before their encounter and, yes, the scene was so off putting to me that I had to shut the film down right then and there.

But my point is this: Until recently (and by that I mean the last ten or so years and, particularly, within the past year) there was a far looser sense of sexual politics and in a movie like Waterhole #3, released in 1967, the idea that women would naturally fall for a “scoundrel”, especially one played by James Coburn, trumped the ugly implications of what was clearly, clearly, a forcible rape, which disgustingly was played for laughs!

Still, it doesn’t shock me that a forgotten film like Waterhole #3 doesn’t engender the same scrutiny as a famous song like Baby It’s Cold Outside.

Yet its a good thing, in my opinion, that people’s eyes are opening a little more to the world around us.

And if you think this is much ado about nothing, please take a moment to see this video.  If this doesn’t open your eyes about what its like to be the victim of sexual harassment, nothing will.

General

About all these sexual harassment/assault stories of late…

Is it just me or does it appear every famous/sorta-famous male out there is a creep?

I’m glad women are, in this day and age, empowered to speak up about these things which, sadly, in the past were brushed under the rug.  I’m also alternately enraged and shaking my head at the growing list of people who have been accused of these types of acts.  Though clearly some of the revealed actions are far more heinous than others, I hope my fellow men view this as a teachable moment.

Men, think about what you’ve done in the past.  Take a good, hard look in the mirror and see if any of your actions when you were younger or -the Gods forbid- recently might fall into the category of sexual harassment or -the Gods forbid redux- assault.

And for fuck’s sake: Don’t do this sort of crap.  Don’t ever do this type of crap.  Behave.

Behave.

At this point, either you do this or prepare yourself to face some potentially huge consequences.

Comic Books/Graphic Novels, General

For what it’s worth…

With all the current news regarding sexual harassment, I was reminded of the first time an incident which could be defined as such was brought to my attention… and how shocked I was to find out about it.

It was the mid-1990’s, so I can claim some excuse in being younger/more naive/stupider then.  It was a Comic Book Convention I attended, among the first where I attended as a “Pro” guest.

Being a “Pro” guest meant you interacted more with other “Pros”.  In that particular convention, I had the unique privilege and thrill to meet up with several people who, to me, were incredibly gifted and whose works entertained the hell out of me over the years before.

In this particular convention there was a very, very legendary comic book figure, one who was in the business for many years and was behind and/or responsible for many very memorable events during practically her entire history.

Frankly, I was gobsmacked that I could actually meet and interact with this legend and mentioned it to the two people I was with at that moment.

One of the pros I was with, a woman who made a name for herself over the previous years with various successful projects, reacted in a most negative way to my comment.

Though it happened many years ago and I don’t recall the exact words, she essentially told me this individual -this comic book legend!- was a creep, a man who was, as defined by today’s headlines, a sexual harasser.  One who had, to my horror, harassed her.

I came away from this conversation with the realization of something I’ve come to know all too well since that time: Sometimes the art is very different from the artist.

Now, I could name names and tell you who this legendary figure is and who the woman accusing him of harassment was but I feel its best I don’t.  Understand, I’m not trying to be coy or engage in some childish “I’ve got a secret” type thing.

The fact of the matter is that this happened a very long time ago and, as I mentioned above, I can only go by my impressions rather than specific words told to me by the lady in question. Still, my impression hasn’t changed that this woman genuinely felt the man was a creep.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, though this woman was clearly seething and willing to tell a stranger (who I was to her at that moment!) her very negative impressions of that man, I don’t know what happened afterwards and, for all I know, things might well have changed.

While perhaps unlikely, this woman might have had more interactions with this comic book legend and maybe her opinion of him changed.  It is possible the man acted bad on the day(s) she formed her negative impressions of him and maybe he eventually realized the error of his ways and apologized to her.

These are things I don’t know!

The woman in question is still around while that legendary comic book figure has since passed.

Perhaps in this day and age, this woman might come forward to offer her opinions of this man or any other(s) who have shown such creepy behavior toward her.

I hope she -and anyone else who was mistreated by those in power- do so.

In all fields, including the comic book field, it is high time bad behavior –especially bad behavior which crosses the line into outright criminal behavior- was treated for what it is and for those who have engaged in it be called out for what they are.

Creeps.