A US radio station has pulled an iconic Christmas song from its playlist this holiday season, citing the #MeToo movement as the reason for its decision.
Cleveland, Ohio's Star 102 station received complaints from listeners that 'Baby it's Cold Outside' was inappropriate in the current climate, local media reported.
The song was written as a conversation between a man and a woman, with the man trying to convince the woman to spend the night with him instead of trying to brave the bad weather.
It rose to prominence in 1949, after winning an Academy Award for its use in the film Neptune's Daughter.
Lyrics include the woman singing "I simply must go (But baby it's cold outside) / The answer is no (But baby it's cold outside)."
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Cleveland Rape Crisis Center President and chief executive Sondra Miller told Fox News that her organisation supports the decision.
"I think it's taking a 2018 lens on a song that was written a very long time ago," she said. "The character in the song is saying 'No', and they're saying 'Well, does no really mean yes?'"
"It really pushed the line of consent; in 2018 what we know is consent is 'Yes'."
Glenn Anderson, an announcer at the station, wrote that he realised the song was written in a different era, but "in a world where #MeToo has finally given women the voice they deserve, the song has no place".
However not everybody agrees with the decision, some saying that the original context of the song was not inappropriate.
In a poll on its own Facebook page, the radio station was outnumbered by listeners who didn't support the decision to ban the song.
Many comments criticised the "PC madness" of pulling the song.
Comedian Jen Kirkman tweeted that she was tired of hearing backlash to the song.
She said the song is not about coercing the woman, but rather a woman who "knows her reputation will be ruined if she stays".
"If you want to be outraged, be outraged about what the song is actually about - the double-standard in regards to sex that women face, and how nothing much has changed."
Newshub.
