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Phoenix Tso

I'm a writer who likes to get out of the house to find stories that aren't being told and perspectives that aren't being considered. I'm obsessed with equality in all forms, cats, coffee, Netflix, weird food, and moving as little as possible in my downtime. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, that might inspire me to use social media more.

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Did you hear the one about how women can't be sushi chefs because of their periods?

GIF via "Parks and Recreation."

Yep, you heard me. There is a bizarre yet widespread belief that menstruation makes women inferior at detecting the tastes and smells of raw fish needed in a sushi chef — one that even the most famous chefs believe in.

When Jiro Ono, son of famed sushi chef Jiro (of the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi") was asked by the Wall Street Journal why there are no women featured in the documentary about his father, Ono said verbatim: "The reason is because women menstruate."

"To be a professional means to have a steady taste in your food, but because of the menstrual cycle, women have an imbalance in their taste, and that’s why women can’t be sushi chefs."

Other myths about women being bad sushi chefs persist, based on their supposed "higher core body temperature," and their cosmetics getting in the way of their sense of smell. Because every woman in the world wears makeup. Obviously.

Yoshikazu Ono (on the right) infamously said that he doesn't hire women to work at his father Jiro Ono's sushi restaurant because their menstrual cycles mean that they have "an imbalance in their taste." Photo by Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty Images.

As a result, it's rare to see a woman as a sushi chef.

This is according to the All Japan Sushi Association, an organization of 5,000 sushi restaurant owners in Japan.

The myth itself stems not only from misconceptions about menstruation and body temperature, but from centuries old tradition. The sushi craft borrows the virtues of "physical, mental, and spiritual precision and perfection" from samurai culture.

"Unfortunately, by-products of that preservation are some outdated beliefs about the ‘second sex.’" Oona Tempest, a female chef at New York's Tanoshi Sushi, told Zagat about how such cultural origins result in discrimination against potential female sushi chefs. "Master chefs willing to take on a female apprentice are just as, if not more so, scarce than females willing to learn.”

Nadeshiko Sushi in Japan is breaking down barriers as the country's only sushi restaurant run entirely by women.

In 2010, Nadeshiko Sushi opened in order to give women jobs during the recession. At first, though, men still did all the prep work in the kitchen, and the female chefs were indistinguishable from their male counterparts, down to the white jacket uniforms they wore.

"No one came to the restaurant when we wore simple white coats because we looked the same as everyone else," said Yuki Chizui, Nadeshiko's manager, to the Japan Times. "We needed to create a feminine restaurant in order to establish a new style.”

What's this new style? Whereas male sushi chefs traditionally serve their customers in silence, the chefs at Nadeshiko bond with their customers, with one chef telling a patron that they work too hard.

Judging by the pictures, the chefs can wear any color chef coat they want as well.

Photo by Koji Sasahara/Associated Press.

Most importantly, at Nadeshiko Sushi, women are now in charge of every step of the process.

Any woman who wants to learn can apprentice at the restaurant as well.

"Women traditionally have stayed in the home, but if they want to become sushi chefs here they have to come six times a week in order to learn on the job," Chizui told Broadly.

Nadeshiko Sushi is a restaurant that solves those twin problems that Oona Tempest talks about — that of women not being interested in sushi-making and that of them not having access to mentors.

Hopefully, other sushi restaurants will soon follow suit.

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Heroes

These photos show why the land currently occupied by armed ranchers is protected.

It's been four days since a group of armed men took over the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon on Jan. 2, 2016.

Ammon Bundy, leader of the armed occupiers at Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by George Frey/Getty Images News.

Ostensibly, their cause is defending two ranchers who were sentenced to prison for burning 130 acres of the refuge, calling the conviction a governmental interference on the "people's constitutional rights."

Coverage of the standoff has mostly focused on the fact that these men have guns, that they're anti-government, that Ammon Bundy's father Cliven was in a similar standoff last year, that people are calling the group #yallqaeda, and that a group of armed #BlackLivesMatter protesters taking over a government building certainly wouldn't be called "peaceful." Given our national current preoccupation with mass shootings, terrorist attacks, and anti-government presidential candidates, this coverage is understandable.

But it's worth looking at what's really at stake here.

With all the attention on the armed ranchers, few people are talking about the birds and other creatures that the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge protects.

"When you look at migratory birds and how they use the landscape, Malheur National Wildlife is critically important," says Bob Sallinger, conservation director at the Audubon Society of Portland, which promotes education and conservation around bird populations at refuges like Malheur.

A burrowing owl at the Malheur National Wildlife Sanctuary. Photo by Candace Larson/Audubon Society of Portland, used with permission.

According to Sallinger, Malheur is home to the largest sandhill crane population of any refuge in the western United States.

20,000 white-faced ibises — 20% of the world's white-faced ibis population — live there as do 4,000 white pelicans and 7,000 grebes among hundreds of thousands migrating waterfowl and tens of thousands of shore birds.

For these birds, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is an essential stop along their migratory journey.

The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is home to thousands of grebes like this horned one. Photo by Candace Larson/Audubon Society of Portland, used with permission.

In fact, Sallinger calls Malheur the "crown jewel" of the United States' wildlife refuge system.

Malheur is one of the first wildlife refuges in the western United States, created by President Theodore Roosevelt after Audubon Society founder William Finley persuaded him to set aside the land by showing him breathtaking photos of the habitat's bird population.

Many of the bird photos interspersed in this article were taken by Finley in 1908, the year that Roosevelt created Malheur.

Photos like this one of a great horned owl:

The great horned owl is one of many species of birds threatened by the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library.

And this photo of a lone white-faced ibis:

Portland Audubon Society founder William Finley's 1908 photo of a white-faced ibis at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library.

And this glorious photo of a pod of American white pelicans:

Malheur National Wildlife refuge is an essential stop along many bird populations' migratory journey, including that of the American white pelican. Photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library.

And this hand-painted glass slide of a northern pintail:

Photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library.

As well as this delicate yellow-headed blackbird:

Photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library.

And this handsome mallard:

Photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library.

It's thanks to Roosevelt setting a precedent for creating protective refuges like Malheur that America retains so much of its wildlife — fowl and fauna and mammalian and reptilian alike.

Sallinger says he doesn't know if the armed occupation will cause immediate harm to the animals on the refuge, but he is worried about the long term impact.

"[The armed ranchers' occupation will] take very thin resources and stretch them even thinner now," Sallinger says. The refuge has a tight schedule and very limited staffing resources to get all the restoration, monitoring, and management tasks that they need to get done during the year.

Malheur Lake bird nest. Photo by William Finley and Herman Bolhman/Audubon Society of Portland/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library.

This includes monitoring where various bird populations nest, the effect their management strategies have on the birds, and cutting-edge techniques to get rid of an invasive carp species in Malheur Lake to allow more birds to breed there. So far, these invasive carp have eaten everything in sight in the lake and have stirred up so much sediment that sunlight can't get through to create essential food sources and allow habitat features to grow back.

Any delay in this work makes Malheur employees' jobs harder and could mean long-term harm to the wildlife in the refuge.

The occupation could also undermine the amount of work environmental groups have done to involve the community in protecting wildlife.

In 2013, the refuge brought together a coalition committed to Malheur's restoration.

Sallinger says that when he talks about shining examples of collaborative projects, he talks about Malheur first.

The coalition behind the Malheur Wildlife National Refuge wants to restore Malheur Lake as a viable habitat for the various bird populations that frequent it. Photo by William Finley and Herman Bohlman/Audubon Society of Portland/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library.

As a result, it makes him sad that the Malheur occupiers are trying to portray the relationship between the refuge and the surrounding community as one of conflict.

"The truth there is that the refuge has been working very diligently to include the community," he says.

In fact, bird watchers at the Daily Kos have a message from the bird-watching community for those who have engaged in poaching and other harmful activities around various wildlife refuges, writing:

"Malheur, Hart Mountain, Klamath Marsh, Yellowstone, Glacier, Yosemite etc etc, they all belong to us, we the American people, and no small group of armed thugs is going to destroy the great wildlife and national park system that our great Republican President Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir put in place over a century ago."

The ranchers claims to be working in the interest of the people, but it's worth noting the people don't want them there.

In its press release, the Portland Audubon Society highlights this fact (emphasis added):

"The occupation of Malheur by armed, out of state militia groups puts one of America’s most important wildlife refuges at risk. It violates the most basic principles of the Public Trust Doctrine and holds hostage public lands and public resources to serve the very narrow political agenda of the occupiers. The occupiers have used the flimsiest of pretexts to justify their actions—the conviction of two local ranchers in a case involving arson and poaching on public lands. Notably, neither the local community or the individuals convicted have requested or endorsed the occupation or the assistance of militia groups."

Occupation leader Ammon Bundy told CNN that the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is "destructive to the people of the county and to the people of the area." But what these anti-government protesters who seek to make federally protected lands available for hunters, farmers, and anyone who wishes to claim them forget is that wildlife refuges exist to protect the environment not only for wildlife, but for people as well.

It's thanks to national wildlife refuges that we have clean water and clean air.

On Tuesday, Jan. 6, the third day of the occupation, it was reported that the people of the nearby community of Burns, Oregon, were hoping that the uninvited, armed occupiers will leave. They don't want them there, and the two ranchers who were convicted of arson don't want them there either.

For the sake of the animals on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and for the people who help them, let's hope so.

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Incredible up-close bird photos - Upworthy ›

Sexism hurts men too.

Earlier this December, the Huffington Post put out a wildly popular video in which women young and old repeated the sexist phrases they hear during a lifetime.

With phrases ranging from "you're so pretty" to "what were you wearing that night," the two-minute video captured what it's like to live in a culture that unfairly defines your worth based on the fact that you happen to be a woman.

Now it's the men's turn to explain the things they hear in a lifetime.

All images via Huffington Post/YouTube.

In "48 Things Men Hear in a Lifetime (That Are Bad for Everyone)," another video from the Huffington Post, men repeat the phrases that often shape how they treat women and each other. Although we don't discuss it much, men also feel that they're often viewed through a narrow lens.

Surprisingly, a lot of the comments in this video deal with stereotypes that are similar to what women face, too, just with a masculine spin.

For example:

1. Men are also judged on their looks.

To illustrate how much women are judged by their looks, the "48 Things Women Hear" video begins and ends with comments reflecting this: "You're so pretty" and "You must have been beautiful when you were younger."

While men might not hear this as incessantly as women, they're also judged on physical characteristics that they have no control over, and are often told they need to fit a stereotypical masculine ideal. This means they're judged on things like being tall, being able to grow facial hair ("You can't even grow a beard!"), and "being buff."

Scientific studies point out that women are judged more strongly by their physical attractiveness than their male counterparts, but as this video shows, men experience this too — sometimes to the point of excluding their personality and capabilities.

2. Men are told that they shouldn't do girly things.

We hammer this notion into boys' heads from a young age: what toys they should play with and what emotions they should or should not express.

Anything perceived as "girly" is off-limits. In this way, boys are discouraged from freely exploring what they might truly like.

And this doesn't change as they grow up, either. For example, while women are questioned for drinking "manly" drinks like whiskey, men are ridiculed for picking a poison that's not stereotypically masculine.

3. Men are also taught not to have feelings.

Most men don't dare get emotional, lest someone ask, "Are you on your period?" (See also "Don't be such a pussy" and "You're so sensitive for a guy.") or make insinuations about sexual orientation. Apparently, the same insults that are lobbed at women can be thrown at men for daring to show emotion at all.

Perhaps The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" says it best:

"I try to laugh about it
Cover it all up with lies
I try and
Laugh about it
Hiding the tears in my eyes
'cause boys don't cry
Boys don't cry"

Real talk, though: Expressing emotion should not equal emasculation. Both men and women would do well to remember that.

4. Women are shamed for their sexuality. Men are encouraged to do the shaming.

"Don't be a slut."

"No guy wants to have sex with a virgin."

Those were two comments featured in the "48 Things Women Hear" video that capture the sexual double standard women face. But in their video, men are encouraged to play into this double standard, too.

Men didn't make these contradictory rules up themselves. Other men and perhaps even other women have passed down such notions for generations. Plus, this video reminds us that men are even judged by similar standards to women in this regard, with people commonly asking a man, "You're still a virgin?"

Then there's the notion that men should feel entitled to whatever they want sexually, perhaps to mitigate the perception that they're virginal and therefore weak:

And the fact that most bad behavior is then excused with this cliche:

Not all men are perpetrators of rape culture, and not all women are victims of it. But both are at a disadvantage when certain notions are pushed on any gender.

"48 Things Men Hear in a Lifetime" shows more than just how sexism affects society's more favored gender. It also shows how men are taught to subscribe to sexist notions in order to come off as more masculine, as a "real man."

And sometimes those notions don't come from men themselves, but from all of us.

We can't solve sexism without men taking stock of their own beliefs and without reflecting on how women play into those beliefs as well.

Let's think twice before we say certain things about how men and women "should" act according to gender.

Watch the entire video below:

J.K. Rowling shuts down anyone who thinks Noma Dumezweni can't play Hermione.

Those who thought Harry Potter would end after "The Deathly Hallows" have been thrilled by recent announcements from the Potterverse.

Author J.K. Rowling at the launch of the website Pottermore. Photo via AFP/Getty Images.

These developments include not only a Harry Potter theme park and the movie version of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" but also a continuation of Harry Potter's story following the boy-wizard as an all-grown-up and stressed out Ministry of Magic employee and his middle child, Albus Severus Potter, in a stage play called "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."

The latest news about the "Cursed Child" made waves over the weekend when it was announced that Hermione will be played by a black woman.

Unfortunately, some people are less than pleased about this.

Actress Noma Dumezweni is a London stage veteran who won a Laurence Olivier Award for best performance in a supporting role for 2005's "A Raisin in the Sun," and she will play Hermione opposite Jamie Parker as Harry and Paul Thornley as Ron.

Noma Dumezweni holding her Olivier Award. Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images.

The funny (sad-funny, not haha-funny) thing is though, film adaptations of stories that originally starred actors of color are routinely white-washed. Just look at "21," which was about Asian-American MIT students gaming Las Vegas casinos but was adapted to star a white actor in the main role. Or "The Last Samurai," in which Tom Cruise played a samurai.

This practice goes back to Hollywood's golden age and continues even today, with Johnny Depp playing a Native American in a "Lone Ranger" adaptation and Emma Stone being cast as a part-Asian character in "Aloha."

When characters who are meant to be black or brown are played by white actors, the defense is usually that Hollywood is a meritocracy and casting directors simply pick the best actor for the role regardless of skin color. But when an actor of color is cast in a role that many assume to be white, people are suddenly concerned about authenticity.

Even when a character in a book who is described as a person of color is played by a person of color, people are upset because they assumed the character was white (see the casting of Amandla Stenberg as Rue in "The Hunger Games").

People criticized Amandla Stenberg's casting as Rue in "The Hunger Games" because of her race. Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images.

In a world where characters can do magic and mail is delivered by owl or where governments force children to fight to the death each year, is it really so unbelievable and inauthentic to think that a character could be anything other than white?

When the news of Hermione's casting broke, some fans couched their displeasure as concern for J.K. Rowling, who they thought might be upset by the casting decision.

They could not have been more wrong. Rowling responded like the class act that she is:

Boom. Mic drop. Hermione's race was never stated in the books.

The Potter movies chose to portray Hermione as a white woman. Hermione appears on the cover of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" with white skin as well.

And that's fine! That's a choice the casting director for the films made. That's a choice the book artist made. Those are choices made not based on descriptions of Hermione in the text but on assumptions made in a world that assumes that, unless otherwise specified, people and characters are white.

The casting director for "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" has chosen to portray Hermione as a black woman.

And both portrayals are acceptable, and J.K. Rowling approved interpretations of the character.

Though Emma Watson as Hermione in the Harry Potter movies is iconic, it's a sign of progress to have a woman of color inhabiting this role. Photo by Gerard Julien/AFP/Getty Images.

One of the critiques that the Potter series has faced since its release is that Rowling didn't seem to write a lot of main roles for people of color in the Harry Potter series. The only explicit diversity in the movies were in background roles, such as the Indian Patil sisters, Potter classmate Dean Thomas, Quidditch captain Angelina Johnson, and love interest Cho Chang (aka The One Before Ginny).

What we can learn from this conversation is how we all need to be more open-minded about diversity in pop culture. Perhaps this is something J.K. Rowling has realized after the fact. Perhaps this is something she wished she had made explicitly clear in the books, or perhaps she enjoys people interpreting her work in new and different ways.

It's great that such a beloved piece of pop culture is moving into the 21st century.

The Ottawa Humane Society has teamed up with the Capital City Garrison to produce a photo series titled "OHS Meets Star Wars: The Furs Awaken."

This is the second time they've done a series like this. The concept is simple (and squee-worthy): pose badass "Star Wars" characters with cute, fuzzy dogs, cats, and guinea pigs. Then share the photos with the Internet, and watch as the adoptions roll in.

The project was started by Rohit Saxena, a five-year volunteer photographer for the Ottawa Humane Society and a member of the Canada-based international "Star Wars" costuming organization the Capital City Garrison.

Members of the Garrison regularly dress up as "Star Wars" villains for charity events under the slogan "Bad Guys Doing Good." Saxena thought photos juxtaposing the villains with pets in need of homes would help the cause and find them their forever homes. Saxena also invited the Rebel Alliance to provide some "Star Wars" heroes for the show.

"I think there's a lot of fun stories to be told about shelter animal adoption," Saxena told Upworthy, explaining that by using the "Star Wars" characters in the photos, they're able to "bring in people who may not have been previously considering that avenue."

1. Saxena took care to group characters and pets by theme, such as pairing Chewbacca with a fluffy shih tzu "who might be a distant relative."

Chewy the Wookiee with Sage the shih tzu. Photo by Rohit Saxena, used with permission.

2. Sometimes opposites attract. That's why Saxena paired the decidedly un-adorable Darth Vader with "the cutest puppy around."

Darth Vader and Bella. Photo by Rohit Saxena. Used with permission.

3. For any guinea pig fans out there, Saxena paired this lil guy with his closest Star Wars counterpart: an Ewok.

An Ewok and Chloe. Photo by Rohit Saxena, used with permission.

4. Tusken Raiders often keep to themselves. Who better to understand that than a cat?

A Tusken Raider poses with OHS shelter cat Lucky. Photo by Rohit Saxena, used with permission.

5. Jawas aren't known for their emotions, but anybody would be thrilled to have a canine companion like Doyle.

A Jawa and Doyle. Photo by Rohit Saxena, used with permission.

6 and 7. And even the fiercest Stormtroopers need some love. Bonus if that comes from two guinea pigs.

Stormtroopers hold Sugar and Clover. Photo by Rohit Saxena, used with permission.

The project was immensely successful, getting every single pet in the project's first photo series adopted.

All the pets featured in OHS's first series were adopted, according to the shelter, but the cute, cuddly critters featured in this second series are still available for adoption.

The problem of overcrowded shelters is much bigger than the Ottawa Humane Society. 7.6 million pets enter animal shelters in the U.S. every year, and in 2014, Canadian shelters took in 85,000 cats and 38,000 dogs.

Clearly, there's a large need for people willing to give these animals a safe, loving home. Too many people are still purchasing their pets from breeders and pet shops (who often get them from cruel puppy and kitten mills) rather than adopting pets from shelters.

"We want people to be aware of the great work being done at their local animal shelters and to support their local shelters by adopting, donating, or volunteering," Saxena said.

"Our role in the community at the Ottawa Humane Society is to make people think about how these animals can fit into their own lives," Natalie Pona, communications manager at OHS, added.

She says that the adage "Pictures are worth a thousand words" rings true as people are more likely to respond to creative photos of the pets at the shelter.

Using pictures to draw in the massive crowd that's interested in "Star Wars" is not a bad place to start at all.

The "furs" is with them, indeed.

Before world leaders finally signed the hugely important, comprehensive agreement on ending climate change at the COP21 conference in Paris, there was an unusual dispute.

It was a small thing, but one that threatened to derail the negotiations and had seemingly little to do with the environment.

Climate change activists demonstrate at the COP21 conference in Paris. Photo by Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images.

Three countries requested that language about human rights and gender equality be removed from the operative part of the agreement before they signed.

Even weirder was the combination of countries making that request: Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Norway. Norway was ranked the second-most gender-equal country in the 2015 Global Gender Gap Index, while the United States came in at #28. Saudi Arabia ranked near the bottom, at 134th.

According to Human Rights Watch, an early draft of the COP21 agreement included a commitment for countries to respect both human rights and gender equality as part of their plans to end climate change.

By Dec. 12, which was intended to be the last day of COP21, these three countries voiced their opposition to including that language in Article 2, which is the part of the agreement which states its purpose.

While only three countries spoke out explicitly against including human rights language in Article 2, others — including various European Union countries — did so by not taking a public position, said Katharina Rall, research fellow at Human Rights Watch.

"I think sometimes silence on an issue like this can also be interpreted by others, and has been interpreted by others, as opposition," Rall told Upworthy.

The language matters because protecting human rights as part of addressing climate change is hugely important.

According to the Huffington Post's Keith Peterman, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, speaking at a COP21 press briefing, asserted everyone's right to life, food, clean water, sanitation, and health.

A changing climate directly inhibits access to these basic human rights.

As Negendra Kumar Kumal, a representative of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities, told the Huffington Post, despite the fact that her tribe is "not the main contributor to emissions ... we are experiencing unpredictable weather [including] changing snowfall and rain patterns."

Indigenous activists demonstrated at the COP21 conference in Paris. Photo by Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images.

A changing climate also affects women disproportionately, especially in developing nations.

"If you undermine poor livelihoods, who has to pick up the pieces? Who has to put food on the table? Who has to go further in drought for firewood?" former Irish President Mary Robinson pointed out in an interview with Democracy Now.

Representatives of indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon at COP21. Photo by Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images.

In the end, a compromise was reached. The disputed language is in the preamble.

Instead of including the language about human rights and gender equality in Article 2, it was kept inthe preamble of the final agreement, with indigenous rights, women's rights, and the rights of other vulnerable groups being mentioned specifically.

And on Dec. 13, the historic agreement was signed.

In the final version, the preamble recognizes countries' legal obligations to their citizens based on human rights law, which is important when it comes to addressing climate change. That's a really good thing.

But not everyone is thrilled by the compromise. Including the language in the preamble instead of in the actual body of the agreement weakens it.

"It's more difficult to make an argument that there is an obligation to implement the preamble as such, without reference to any other article," Rall said.

Still, Rall clarified, because the whole agreement is a "binding international treaty," the preamble still has "legal meaning."

Guaranteeing human rights shouldn't be so controversial.

Why do international agreements concerning basic human rights need so much negotiation? And, most frustrating of all, when we're this close to a binding, universal agreement on climate change, why hold up this progress on something that should be as uncontroversial as human rights and equality for all?

"It's not enough to just write it into the preamble, and say: 'OK, now we're done with this. We've dealt with this question,'" cautioned Rall. She says that various indigenous groups were unhappy with the ultimate result.

Still, she's optimistic. She hopes these groups are able to follow up on the agreement in their own countries, as well as globally.

The least we can do is help apply that pressure.

Enjoy your favorite problematic holiday song with these feminist remixes.

Raise your hand if you love the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" but also find it creepy.

Since Frank Loesser wrote the song in 1944, famous people have been clamoring to cover it — from Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. (separately of course, not as a duet, though that would've been something) to Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell in the Christmas classic "Elf."

It's not hard to imagine why. The tune is super catchy.

Through 1940's eyes, the lyrics may have all the warmth and romance that you'd want in a holiday classic, telling the story about a woman saying she has to leave a man's house while he begs her to stay, saying, "Baby, it's cold outside."

Think a little deeper though, and the lyrics sound pretty darn sinister, with the man at the very least pressuring the woman to stay and outright ignoring her protests, "I ought to say no, no, no, sir/Mind if I move in closer," at the very worst, straight up roofie-ing her, "Say what's in this drink/No cabs to be had out there."

In an age where discussions about consensual sex are at the forefront, it's common to find thinkpieces debating the song's feminist credentials, whether it's 2012 or just last year.

GIF via "Elf."

The good news is that now we have some alternative versions of the song, in the form of amazing feminist remixes.

There's this version by YouTube user caseymh2010, which is from 2013, but has started making the rounds again as the holiday season approaches.

In the updated version, the lyrics start out the same as the original:

"I really can't stay/But, baby, it's cold outside. I've got to go away/But, baby, it's cold outside. This evening has been/Been hoping that you'd drop in ..."

Then, instead of the man answering, "I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice," when the woman sings, "so very nice," he sings a friendly warning:

GIFs via caseymh2010/YouTube.

Rather than trying to coerce the woman into staying, the man supports her decision to leave, and wishes her safe travels.

Other lyrics from the man combine to show that he'll only move forward with the evening if she wants to, singing "Saying yes is your right" and "We've got consent, and that's enough.”

This updated version also addresses the woman's concern in the original lyrics that she'll be judged for staying the night, as implied by "there's bound to be talk tomorrow."

At one point, the female singer uses a lyric straight out of the original, "at least there will be plenty implied," but in this version, the man, instead of ignoring her concern, sings this sex-positive response:

This song reflects the fact women may still be judged for having sex, but the man models a response showing that neither of them should feel any shame for having had sex or even just "staying the night."

Then there's another parody of the song from 2014 that lasts only 11 glorious seconds.

"I really can't stay," this woman sings. "It's totally fine. I'll call you a cab," the man replies.

If you don't want to watch a 40-second video, this Facebook post models a similar conversation:

Lots of people love "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Given how catchy it is, it's hard to blame anyone for wanting to enjoy it without thinking too deeply about certain ingrained stereotypes that it promotes.

It's also great, however, that these progressive alternatives exist. As someone who finds it hard to separate art from a bad creator, or from a bad message, these reimaginings make "Baby, It's Cold Outside" even more enjoyable.

And it gives me hope for humanity — that messages of consent are catching on.