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Which version ? The original, where the woman is the lead or the one with the male lead ?
How one can be unsettle about this song is beyond me. I've only seen/heard the version from an old movie clip, with the male in the lead, not sure of the actors.
From what I took , it seemed like playful flirting. The era of the movie was in the 40's I think , so its safe to say that things were much different than today. It seemed like while they were flirting they were coming up with a story to tell those that would frown on the situation.
Ditto. How many movies from that era and beyond had the guy making moves on a woman and her resisting / saying no? It's not like the song ends with us no longer hearing her, or hearing her drunk, and him gleeful that he got his way. I'd read somewhere that people thought he was spiking her drink with roofies.
This reminds me of people who are quick to call things pervy, such as when they see anyone over the age of 5 sitting on someone's lap. Really? How pervy are they that their mind went there because I see nothing sexual about that.
The original was written by Frank Loesser and his wife, Lynn Garland. They sang it on the party circuit long before it was included in the score for Neptune's Daughter. In the actual original, Frank took the more assertive role. You're absolutely right that Betty Garrett sang the dominant part in one of the versions included in the movie -- there were two with the second featuring Ricardo Montalban and Esther Williams -- but that was not how it was written originally. Of note, Lynn Garland deeply resented her husband for selling out "their song."
Don't forget Lady Gaga and Joseph Gordon-Levitt , her being in the lead. You failed to mention what exactly is unsettling about any of these renditions.
Didn't Dean Martin do a version as well ? Now if we saw old Dean with a wink of his eye, drop a pill in the drink he was handing to a female , while singing this..... well then I get it. Other than that it seems like a harmless song.
The really ironic thing? Most of the songs involved in this alleged "war on Christmas" have nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus. Get back to us when people start complaining about "Silent Night."
From what I took , it seemed like playful flirting. The era of the movie was in the 40's I think , so its safe to say that things were much different than today. It seemed like while they were flirting they were coming up with a story to tell those that would frown on the situation.
That's exactly what it was. It was all a game... back then women were not supposed to say yes to sex or they'd get labeled sluts and their reputations ruined.
Of course hormones being what they are plenty of women said yes - but the rules were she had to make him "work for it" so he'd "respect" her and not have the idea that she did this with just anybody. Plus both parties had to be super discreet or the girl would pay a price and possibly the boy would get beat up by her male relatives for "taking advantage" of her.
Hence the song. She was totally going to say yes or she would have slapped his face and walked out when he first propositioned her. LOL. It's a game. They are being coy, flirting up a storm while they go through the motions. She "protests" by talking about her family being mad at her, he begs, she blames the drink and the weather, he flirts more, she stays... after she's done enough to "say that she tried".
Of course social mores at the time were stupid - a grown woman can have sex if she wants, it was always dumb to have to pretend you weren't going to - plus it was dangerous because it was such a grey area with "no means yes" and at some men feeling they had to conquer - that bad things could and did happen. But that's not this song.
About as much as Santa, reindeer, snowmen, trees, jingle bells and Wal-mart.
Santa at least has some grounding in religious tradition. Santa Claus is based on a religious figure named St. Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra. One of the legends surrounding St. Nicholas is that he saved a family from having to sell their daughters into servitude because they did not have enough money to pay the girls' dowries. St. Nicholas snuck into the house to leave a bag of gold coins that allowed the girls to marry. This legend is the basis for our practice of gift-giving and also a tradition for children in some parts of the world to leave out their shoes on December 6th, St. Nicholas Day, so St. Nick can fill them with treats. (At one time, we belonged to a church that had a special children's service on that night; the kids would leave their shoes in the hall where our Associate Pastor would find and fill them with candy.)
That's exactly what it was. It was all a game... back then women were not supposed to say yes to sex or they'd get labeled sluts and their reputations ruined.
Of course hormones being what they are plenty of women said yes - but the rules were she had to make him "work for it" so he'd "respect" her and not have the idea that she did this with just anybody. Plus both parties had to be super discreet or the girl would pay a price and possibly the boy would get beat up by her male relatives for "taking advantage" of her.
Hence the song. She was totally going to say yes or she would have slapped his face and walked out when he first propositioned her. LOL. It's a game. They are being coy, flirting up a storm while they go through the motions. She "protests" by talking about her family being mad at her, he begs, she blames the drink and the weather, he flirts more, she stays... after she's done enough to "say that she tried".
Of course social mores at the time were stupid - a grown woman can have sex if she wants, it was always dumb to have to pretend you weren't going to - plus it was dangerous because it was such a grey area with "no means yes" and at some men feeling they had to conquer - that bad things could and did happen. But that's not this song.
There was an old gag where a woman is talking about her wedding night and her husband asking, 'Am I your first?' with her responding, 'Yes. Why do men always ask me that question?'
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