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But you're not demonstrating that understanding. by ndtnguy

You can only think of the song as about sex, and about power. And if you view the song as one of the singers trying to manipulate the other into adultery, sure, the song is rather shocking.

But---and here is where the societal decline comes into play---not everyone everywhere is talking about copulation, much less coercion with respect to it. Viewed from the perspective of a more restrained society, the song's import is both much clearer and much less nefarious.

Dean Martin is clearly fond of Marilyn Maxwell. But as Marilyn accurately points out, the situation is not apt for vigorous canoodling, for all sorts of reasons. Dean isn't a fool. He knows this. And because he knows it, he doesn't really want Marilyn to stay, at least not altogether.

Marilyn, of course, is clearly fond of Dean. And so she doesn't really want to go home, at least not altogether.

What they both want, and what the song cleverly puts on display, is the enjoyment of their mutual repartee. In a world where people do things other than force each other to have sex---or even other than have sex after obtaining informed consent on all the appropriate ironclad forms---they can explore other enjoyable exercises, and a bit of teasing between people who like each other is a good example.

So after the singing and the drinks are done, Dean is going to help Marilyn into a cab to get her safely home, or at least let her lock herself in his room while he sleeps on the couch if it really is too cold to make it to the sidewalk.* Because in a world other than the one we have right this second, people might do things other than have sex.


* I've never seen Neptune's Daughter, the movie for which the piece was originally written, although Red Skelton and Ricardo Montalban in a madcap romantic comedy sounds fantastic. But if the synopsis on the internet is accurate, my version sounds a lot closer to the original use of the song than the one that stalks the twenty-first century's imagination.