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Lia Brown
Elizabeth Francese
February 9th, 2015
Rhetorical Analysis: “Baby, Its Cold Outside”
“Phone cases are for poor people,” (Young). That was a phrase uttered by a guy Youtuber Amy
Young found on the infamous dating app Tinder. It is generally known not for establishing
relationships, but as a place a woman would go if she should like to be dazzled with “dick pics” and
offers to hook up. Tinder provides an example of gender-stereotyping at work in the world today. The
media and general talk having to do with Tinder, stereotypes the men on it as disreputable people who
will say what is needed to get in a woman's pants. This sentiment is also shown in the song “Baby, It's
Cold Outside”. Like all stereotyping, these images come from observation of a trend, but that trend
does not come from an inherent difference between the opposite genders. There may be truth to the
behavior stereotypes are based off of, but there is too wide of a behavior spectrum to draw a sharp line
between male and female actions. “Baby, It's Cold Outside” and its corresponding video provide an
acute example of gender roles that have morphed since it was written in 1944, but have not gone away.
Over all, gender roles are not biological in nature: they do not help a relationship, there are not distinct
male and female behaviors that can be observed for all members of each sex, and gender roles are not
uniform.
There are four man characters featured in “Baby, It's Cold Outside”. The first part shows a man
trying to convince a woman to stay the night, whereas the second part shows a woman trying to
convince a man to let her stay the night. In article published in the Gender and History journal,
Catherine Carstairs discuses the influence of Gayelord Hauser on America culture in the period from
1920-1975. Although not described directly, the article hints at the presence of very strict gender rolls.
For instance, “He (Hauser) told older women that they could break free of their caregiving obligations
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and rocking chairs to become adventurers and entrepreneurs, physically active and attractive,”
(Carstairs). This is evidence of a role given specifically to older women spanning the time in which
“Baby, It's Cold Outside” was written. Carstairs also states that, “It is important to note that Hauser's
niche of providing beauty advice to older women did not threaten the power structures of the day that
positioned older women as inferior to both men and younger women,” (Carstairs). It is evident that
there were very strict classifications in this time period that were based on the gender and age of the
individuals. This is a very important concept to keep in mind when analyzing the characters within
“Baby, It's Cold Outside”.
The lyrics of “Baby, It's Cold Outside” show the gender roles that were generally accepted.
“My mother will start to worry... My father will be pacing the floor,” (mrdaft). This quote is the classic
image of the emotional woman versus the more logical, contained man. This stereotype, that men are
more contained in their emotions than women, is still very prevalent. Also only the woman is shown to
be seriously considering what people would say if she spent the night. Some of the woman's lines are:
“The neighbors might think,” and “There's bound to be talk tomorrow” (mrdaft). There is no such lines
from the man as he is trying to convince the woman to stay. Logically the social repercussions would
not be nearly as drastic for him because he would be worried about them if they were. He is also in the
more powerful position because of the social structure. When the script is flipped and the same words
are used for a woman trying to convince a man to let her stay the night, it is not taken as seriously. The
actors cast in the video are more silly looking, neither are very attractive by usual standards. There is
also a lot more physical comedy which is a large contrast to the more serious note taken in the first
rendition. The effect makes the woman look desperate, not acting how she should act. This shows the
expectation of women to be virtuous.
An article published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships reports on the view of
gender roles before the rise of feminism: “prior to this time, masculinity and femininity were viewed as
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opposite ends on a bipolar continuum of generally desirable psychological characteristics believed to
distinguish between the genders,” (Helms, 845). As described in the previous paragraphs, “Baby, It's
Cold Outside” reflects these gender roles. Now the question is about the nature of gender roles
themselves. Recently a greater number of studies have been conducted trying to define the effects of
gender roles. There is a trend that women see themselves as emotional and men see themselves as
logical, but despite the trend many studies support the idea that the differences are not biological.
The article mentioned above in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships is entitled
“Spouses' Gender-typed attributes and their links with marital quality: A pattern analytic approach”.
The article summarizes the findings of a study conducted by the authors. A number of couples were
classified by their “gender typed attributes” (things like expressivity) and then were tracked in how
they fared in marriage over a three year period (Helms, 843). The study found that in the common case
where the wife followed traditional gender typing and the husband followed the gender typing to an
even larger extent, the couple, “was more likely than all other couple types to: (i) be less in love, (ii)
spend less time with one another, and (iii) have more difficulty understanding one another,” (Helms,
861). In today's culture, gender stereotyping is correlated with less happy marriages. If gender roles had
developed to be ingrained biologically it would be logical to think they would have developed to
promote marriage, not make it more difficult. The article also touches on the complexity of the effects
of gender typing. It states outright, “Our results suggest that the links between gender-typed attributes
and marriage may be more complex than previously proposed,” (Helms, 861). The complexity is also
evidence of the non-biological nature of gender roles. Biology would suggest an obvious divide in
behaviors, the majority of women should act one way while the majority of men should act another.
This is not the case.
Angie Burns in her journal article “Women in love and men at work” also touches on the
complexity of interactions. She conducted a study in which twenty-two individuals were interviewed in
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depth about their relationships, (Burns, 149). A gender role trend can be seen with the women in
particular as they describe themselves as crazy, and caught up in intense emotion. One women says in
relation to a strong emotion, “I feel stupid saying it 'cos it's a bit irrational heh (laughs)” (Burns, 161).
In response to this being evidence as gender difference Burns argues it “would fail to grapple with the
very complex ways in which gender, love and intimate relationships were produced in the interviews.
The model of the complementary emotional woman and unemotional man was given different
meanings in the woman's and men's interviews,” (Burns, 168). The women and the men did not agree
on a single stereotype. If gender roles were defined by differences in genders the stereotypes should
agree. Burns also states, “of particular interest here is how the men's constructions of emotions in
intimate relationships seemed to involve fewer explicit assumptions of gender dissimilarity and less
asymmetry than the women's stories,” (Burns, 168). The men did not speak as much about gender roles
and their stories were more consistent with each other. By implication, the gender differences the
women spoke about were inconsistent. Yet again the stereotypes do not agree.
The rigid gender roles that were a fact of life in the past seem to be just that: in the past. But we
still deal with them today. The song “Baby, It's Cold Outside” and its accompanying video show a man
trying to convince a woman to stay the night. The woman is protesting because of what society would
think of her if she stayed the night. That the man doesn't worry about what others would say, shows
that he is not under an equal amount of pressure. When the scrips are flipped and the woman is trying
to convince the man to let her stay, it is not taken as seriously. The physical comedy imply that it is
silly for a woman to act that way. Although there is less shame about this particular situation in the
current time we still create ways in which either gender should act. The men on the dating app Tinder
are stereotyped to be disreputable. As seen through the different studies men are stereotyped to be
unfeeling as compared to the over emotional women.
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These differences are not biological. It is more logical that they are socially constructed.
Couples who follow the stereotypes to a larger extent tend to not fair as well as other couples. The line
between male and female actions is not clear because interactions in a relationship are so complex.
Finally, the stereotypes do not agree with each other. All of these factors should be the opposite of
what they are if gender roles were biological in nature.
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Works Cited
Burns, Angie. “Women in love and men at work”. Psychology, Evolution and Gender, 4.2 (2002): 149172. Web. 10 February 2015.
Carstairs, Catherine. “'Look Younger, Live Longer': Ageing Beautifully with Gayelord Hauser in
America, 1920-1975.” Gender & History 26.2 (2014): 332-350. Web. 10 February 2015.
Helms, Heather H, et al. “Spouses' gender-typed attributes and their links with marital quality: A
pattern analytic approach.” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 23.6 (2006): 843-864.
Web. 10 February 2015.
mrdaft. “Baby it's cold outside.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 24 December 2011. Web. 9
February 2015.
Young, Amy. “My Experience on Tinder (A Horror Story)// amy young.” Online video clip. Youtube.
Youtube, 8 October 2014. Web. 9 February 2015.