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In 2004, the National Post published a tongue-in-cheek article arguing that Baby It’s Cold Outside should be immediately banned from Canadian airwaves.

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside has a lovely melody but it’s an ode to statutory rape,” read the December 20, 2004 story. “In sum, the man gets the girl drunk amid her protestations so he can take advantage of her.”

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Fourteen years later our throwaway joke has become reality. On Tuesday, the CBC, along with the country’s two largest commercial radio operators, Bell Media and Rogers, announced they would be pulling the “controversial” song from their rotation.

So what to make of a 74-year-old duet suddenly considered politically incorrect despite remaining one of the world’s most popular Christmas songs? Below, some context as to whether it really has been a rape anthem this whole time.

To modern ears, the song indeed checks most of the boxes for sexual misconduct

The lyrics to Baby It’s Cold Outside have not aged well. It’s essentially a woman making excuses for why she needs to leave a man’s home while he repeatedly ignores them. The song even includes the cardinal sin of 21st century sexual consent: A woman explicitly saying “no” (“I ought to say no, no, no sir “) while the man ignores her (“Mind if move in closer?”). “That song has creeped me out for years. In my career, I’ve had a lot of experiences very much like what’s happening in the tune,” New York singer Patricia Fennell told the Tampa Bay Times last year. It also doesn’t help that on the song’s original lyric sheets the male singing part was labeled “Wolf” with the woman playing the “Mouse.” There will be some defences of Baby It’s Cold Outside in the paragraphs below, but none will argue that this is in any way a proper way for men to conduct themselves in 2018.