TL;DR: I don’t want to hear you go on about solidarity with women and making space for conversations about mental health if you are being misogynistic in your response to a ban that does not affect you in any material way.

Let me just say this about the removal from playlists of a certain holiday song: no one is saying you can’t play it in your own home, or love it, or listen to it wherever you want. Fill your boots. But consider a few things: not every piece of art ages well. There’s what is art, but there’s also when is art. That song lands differently on many modern ears than it did when it was released. Lots of songs do.

If you’re a person who believes that the voices of women and girls should be listened to, or who believes that we should make non-judgemental room for conversations about mental illness and health, if you are someone who understands that some people move through this world with trauma responses, and experience the world differently than you do, then you can perhaps understand that the lyrics of Baby, It’s Cold Outside, divorced as they are from the context of the film in which that song appeared, might seem a little…well… a little rapey. A little, yes, I’ll say it, triggering. That is legitimate.

Why remove this one from the playlist, and not so many others? Those decisions are made every day. There are plenty of songs that don’t make it to the playlist, or get retired. All kinds of songs that don’t get played, for all kinds of reasons.

The fact of the matter is, I dig the song in question. I love the call and response of it. The melody is frigging catchy—it’s been pretty much an international ear worm since this news broke, from what I can tell. It’s no O Holy Night, but sure, I have grown used to it in my Christmas listening each year. Good news: thanks to the free market, I can listen to that song any time I like. And so can you.

But what I really wish you’d stop doing is bemoaning the downfall of society. I for one welcome the downfall of this garbage society that oppresses so many.

Is this removal of this song evidence of a world gone mad? I mean, if that’s the best evidence you have of a world in madness, I am envious, truly.

I also really want to investigate this idea that this is evidence of a world gone too soft, too sensitive, also known as the pussification of society. If you are a thinking person, you will no doubt notice that soft and sensitive are words typically associated with femininity. And that pussification, surely one of the ugliest words I’ve ever written, on this website or anywhere, refers directly to, well… pussies. And who has those? Mostly women.

So here’s the question I’ll leave you with (I could go on about this all day, really, but I have a goddamn book to write and I can’t get it done with this bullshit crowding my brain): We’ve been living in a hard, insensitive world for centuries. How’s that going for us?