You know what's deplorable? Misogyny.

As my readers should know by now, Unter Null is one of my favorite musicians. I've not had the opportunity to have the years of experience with her music that some people have, but in the short time that I've listened to it, it's moved me. Moreover, based on the half a shot glass's worth of information I have gathered about her personality, Erica has my respect in that category, too. In particular, I like how she's able to take things in stride and change the direction of an annoying situation using sarcasm.

(Photo by Ericadunham, CC 3.0 Unported License)

So, Erica made a status update on her official Facebook page, today. She asked people what people would like to see in her collector's boxset edition of her next Unter Null album. Most of the suggestions were mundane, such as T-shirts, autographs, and wristbands, but someone made a comment about putting in condoms. That was kind of icky, but that was one of the things you could probably roll your eyes and just skip over. The crown jewel though was when someone said "used panties."

I'm not joking here. Someone suggested she put used panties in her box set. Regardless of whether or not that was supposed to be a joke, that was still pretty vile. Erica said, "Allowing some of these comments for posterity. This is what happens when you don't have a dick and still write music." I think she hit the nail on the head with that comment.

Why are there men out there who don't see women as people? I see this all the time when I look at communication between male fans and female artists. Luckily, I don't see it as much within the goth-industrial circles as much as I see it within some other scenes, but it still happens quite a bit. There are some men out there who think women are lesser beings than men are and don't have to be treated with the same respect.

First and foremost, if you're a guy, firing off sexually charged statements, whether in jest or seriousness, to a woman you don't know, just because she's a woman, makes you a jerk. She's a person, just like any man is a person. Moreover, as far as I know, Erica has a husband, and he's likely the only person who can get away with saying things of a sexual nature to her. If you are one of the billions of men on this planet who aren't her husband, and you say things like this to her, you're also a jerk because you're saying these things to another guy's wife.

I'm happy to see that Erica was able to handle this with such poise. If I had to guess, I'd say she probably has plenty of experience having to put up with misogynist fans, and this experience is probably something fairly common among women in the goth-industrial music scene. All things considered, this is not remotely as damaging of a situation as countless others in the past that women have had to endure, but it's still wrong and should be called out for what it is.