I’d also include the controversy around “Baby It’s Cold Outside”.
The irony is that in fully understanding the song and the culture of the time it was written in, the song is literally the opposite of what the outrage junkies made of it. They think it’s a song about a guy keeping a woman at his place against her will (the notion that he actually drugged her drink (and in such a way that she could tell by tasting it) is especially hilarious) through subtle intimidation, and that rape is apparently imminent.
But in fact, it’s a very empowering (especially for its time, ~80 years ago) song about a woman who defies social/cultural norms/rules to do what she wants and go ahead and spend the night at this guy’s place:
All of her ‘protests’ have to do with her reputation specifically, she talks about how she “should”/“must”/“ought to” leave, but never once says “I want to leave”
“What’s in this drink” was a blame-shifting/plausible deniability tactic, not too different from how people blame their actions on alcohol even today. Although the song is very progressive, she doesn’t completely abandon the social rules, so she adds this bit as an ‘excuse’ for the fact that she is absolutely and willfully spending the night with this guy. For the same reason, she ‘can’t’ simply straight-up ‘say yes’ to him; it’d be unladylike to accept such an offer, after all. So she does the stuff in the first bullet point instead.
P.S. Also, the original songwriter wrote the song specifically for him and his wife to perform together for friends at a housewarming party. It wasn’t even considered to be released commercially until it became a huge hit at parties that they were invited to specifically to perform it. The idea that it’s a predatory date rape song is extra ridiculous with that context, aside from everything else.
But its no different from the other examples I gave. All three of those are empowering art that modern listeners take out of context and get offended by.
The irony is that in fully understanding the song and the culture of the time it was written in, the song is literally the opposite of what the outrage junkies made of it. They think it’s a song about a guy keeping a woman at his place against her will (the notion that he actually drugged her drink (and in such a way that she could tell by tasting it) is especially hilarious) through subtle intimidation, and that rape is apparently imminent.
But in fact, it’s a very empowering (especially for its time, ~80 years ago) song about a woman who defies social/cultural norms/rules to do what she wants and go ahead and spend the night at this guy’s place:
More detail here.
P.S. Also, the original songwriter wrote the song specifically for him and his wife to perform together for friends at a housewarming party. It wasn’t even considered to be released commercially until it became a huge hit at parties that they were invited to specifically to perform it. The idea that it’s a predatory date rape song is extra ridiculous with that context, aside from everything else.
Yes, that’s all true.
But its no different from the other examples I gave. All three of those are empowering art that modern listeners take out of context and get offended by.