fedward, tumbling

tiffanyb:

As a friend asked on Twitter today: Has this song always been about date rape?

I used to think it was more like the woman didn’t really want to leave but was sort of talking herself into it.* Kind of like when you’re lying in bed, and you know you SHOULD go to the gym, but you don’t want to, and…

When thinking about this song it’s important to consider that Frank Loesser wrote it for himself and his wife to perform at private parties, and it was initially unpublished (according to the ever-reliable Wikipedia his wife was furious at him for selling the rights).  So while the words might seem a bit date-rapey if taken at face value, the song clearly wasn’t intended to be taken at face value at all. Note that the original couple were already married and performing the song for friends at parties where, presumably, everybody was drinking hot toddies or Tom and Jerries or something to that effect, and you can reasonably assume that a degree of safety and humor surrounded the whole thing, and everybody in the room was in on the joke.

And for what it’s worth I’ve never had the idea the mouse had any intention to leave. The lady doth protest too much.