Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Caryn Riswold

Home
Progressive Christian
Racism, Sexism, & The Holiday Classics

Racism, Sexism, & The Holiday Classics

Last updated on: December 3, 2013 at 10:39 am by Caryn Riswold

Racism, Sexism, & The Holiday Classics 2013-12-03T10:39:13-07:00 Caryn Riswold

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I just ruined “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” for my husband this year. He’s endlessly irritated that I made him read this Salon article pointing out how the 1940s winter tune is a date rape anthem. She says no. He plies her with drink. Hey … did he put something in the drink? Isn’t it sweet?

Not really.

I am devoted to Christmas songs, movies, and television classics from the morning after Thanksgiving all the way through to New Year’s Day every year. I can’t stand them even one day before that, and anything after the January celebration of Epiphany is a little weird. In between, I can’t get enough. For 11 months of the year, I want nothing to do with Amy Grant. Nothing. In December, her 1983 Christmas album is on constant rotation in our house and on long car rides. I’m listening to Sirius XM Holly as I write this right now! I can’t wait to get Kelly Clarkson’s Wrapped in Red album this year!

I even have a ritual to kick off the movie season that includes watching my three favorite Christmas movies first and in this order. It begins with Miracle on 34th Street as I start putting up our Christmas tree while others are out getting tasered at Walmart in search of a cheap flat screen television. The original black and white, of course. Don’t colorize or remake another classic, please!

Then I move on to White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, by which time the tree is mostly decorated. I finish the day with National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation … as I put up my own very meager front porch white lights and red-bow-accented greenery. I’m a Riswold, not a Griswold, after all.

At some point then in the weeks leading up to Christmas, I will have to see, in no particular order: A Christmas Story, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Holiday, Love Actually, Elf, The Santa Clause, Jack Frost, Trading Places, While You Were Sleeping, and various other flicks as they pop up on tv. (Four Christmases? Christmas With the Kranks? Bring it on!)

Last year, I remembered the classic Holiday Inn, also with Bing Crosby who was this time teamed with Fred Astaire, and asked for the DVD as a stocking stuffer. I popped it in, ready to revisit the Inn that’s only open on holidays and always featuring fabulous song and dance numbers.

Then I saw and remembered the blackface number.

And the horrible “Abraham” song, sung by the black maid and her young son to celebrate Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves as the Inn opens for Presidents Day. They use … the “d” word.

And I realized why this holiday classic isn’t in so much rotation with all the others on cable television channels.

I also wondered why the blatant racism bothered me more than the obvious sexism that permeates that and so many other holiday movies. Holiday Inn itself is all about two men competing over a woman. They have power, she is their prize. Miracle on 34th Street celebrates the moment when the bitter divorcee realizes that she can only be truly happy with a man. And White Christmas … well, aside from impossible waistlines and freaky skinny thighs on a powerful woman dancer, one adult sister believing that she has to take care of the other one until a man comes along hardly celebrates female independence.

Sexism permeates these classic movies as well as the contemporary ones I like to watch. And yet it doesn’t smack me in the face the same way that the racism in Holiday Inn did. Why is that? I’m under no illusion that racism isn’t still real and blatantly destroying people’s lives. But is there some qualitative difference in the way it appears on the big and small screen now, compared to sixty years ago? It’s not like we have anything resembling racial equality in our entertainment … so has sexism not changed as much in the same time period? I truly wonder about this.

You may note that Trading Places is on my list of flicks to watch each year. Here’s a more contemporary racist holiday movie, with two wealthy white men betting on whether or not they can take the black con man, played by Eddie Murphy off the street and make him into a respectable citizen before Christmas, while simultaneously ruining the white up-and-coming business man, played by Dan Aykroyd. It’s full of racist stereotypes and assumptions. Yet it doesn’t hit me in the gut the way “Abraham” and Holiday Inn’s blackface do. Is it because Murphy and Aykroyd discover the manipulative game they have been pawns in and team up in the end to bring down the wealthy white schemers? Perhaps.

So I watch the movies and listen to the music, a window into our collective past and commentary on our common future. How much has changed? How much hasn’t? What do you notice if you pay attention to the soundtrack of your holiday season?

And I still sing along to “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” as I remind anyone who is listening how rapey it is. I make sure to say out loud whenever needed that yes, you insufferable smug 1980s Band Aid Brits, they DO know it’s Christmas in Africa, and you know what, they might not care.

So I am part of the problem, and trying to interrupt it at the same time.

Happy Holidays?

Image via.

Feminism

Gender

Race

baby it's cold outside

Christmas Vacation

date rape

Holiday Inn

Miracle on 34th Street

Previous Post

November 27, 2013

Truth, Generosity, & Gratitude

Next Post

December 5, 2013 Honorable Mention: Duncan's Bar Mitzvah

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion At the Intersections Atheism Christianity Contraception Education Feminism Gender Getting Theological Honorable Mention Islam LGBT News Our Voices Race Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What acrostic device is used in many Psalms and Proverbs?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Alphabetic order Numerical sequence Reversed order Chronological order