Storytime with Uncle Pathogen is our new monthly Op/Ed column, written by friend of the site and now contributor, the always outspoken and articulate Matt Pathogen.

It May Shock You To Find That Our Female Comrades Have An Opinion As Well

In case you suffer from the dual conditions of being an industrial fan and living under a rock, here’s some knowledge: On the opening night of Festival Kinetik 5.0 in Montreal, Jairus Khan of Ad·ver·sary issued a decidedly unambiguous challenge to the industrial music community in the form of a scathing video backdrop while he and Antigen Shift closed their set. Upset by what he perceived as a rising surge of regressive tendencies in a scene he’s lived and loved for a long time, he threw down the proverbial gauntlet on the subjects of racism and sexism by leveling a stunningly audacious criticism of the acts he was opening for, Combichrist and Nachtmahr, and their utilization of blunt-force shock tactics in their imagery, videos and lyrical content. It has launched an incredible and near-universal discussion on the subject, a result that took many of us pleasantly by surprise.

I’ve previously made my own impact (for better or worse) by launching into the subject of sexism in the industrial community. My own blog after Combichrist’s “Throat Full Of Glass” music video was debuted went mildly viral and caused me a whole lot of shock when I received negligible fallout and an incredible outpouring of support for my criticism. I Die: You Die, a publication I am beyond thrilled to now be writing for, scooped the internet at large when they slammed out their interview with Jairus and subsequent reactions from Andy La Plegua of Combichrist and Thomas Rainer of Nachtmahr almost immediately upon the culmination of Jairus’ performance. It’s been an incredible couple of weeks for discussing our little music scene. However, there is one factor missing, which can be found with a cursory perusal of this very paragraph: On the issue of sexist attitudes toward women in the industrial scene, there’s not a heck of a lot of people asking women what their opinions are. I’d like to do my part to change that a little with this, my inaugural submission to I Die: You Die.

To give a hopefully insightful article providing a voice to a demographic that is obviously intimately involved in this discussion, I’ve used the following formula: A number of members of the industrial community were each asked two form questions, one pertaining to their reaction to Jairus’ video, the other asking them for some insight into their experience as women in industrial. They were also informed that there was, and is, no predetermined conclusion this article is being guided towards, and that they were encouraged to talk about it in any way they wished in whatever manner or tone they felt was the most honest. Also, in the interest of not encouraging this to be a discussion to which only the (for lack of a better word) luminaries of the industrial scene are invited, I tried to give these questions to women musicians, DJs, and members of the scene’s general population. With any luck, this will open the doors of the discussion to everyone, everywhere, with valuable insight. My own thoughts on the subject will be found at the end of this piece, but first, to business.

The questions issued were as follows:

Q1) What was your initial reaction to Ad·ver·sary’s video at first, and how do you feel about it now that you’ve had time to think about it?

Q2) Give us some insight into your own personal experiences as a female member of the industrial community.



“One thing that I would love to see come out of this is for industrial musicians to be inspired to create more meaningful lyrics”

Ginger Leigh, AKA DJ Synthestruct, Orlando, FL

What was your initial reaction to Ad·ver·sary’s video at first, and how do you feel about it now that you’ve had time to think about it?

Unfortunately I had to miss Ad·ver·sary’s initial presentation at Kinetik, but I saw it the following day posted online. Initially, I thought it was a pretty bold move, and it was obvious that it’s something he feels very strongly about. This was the topic of many conversations in the days that followed, so it was extremely effective in at least making people aware of the themes that are being presented by both bands. Jairus chose to address sexism and racism specifically, but with a lot of industrial music, you hear many of the same themes over and over (mostly about war, or drugs, or violence). The one thing that I would love to see come out of this is for industrial musicians to be inspired to create more meaningful lyrics and break away from the same themes that have been presented repeatedly. Ultimately, music is a form of art, and is the result of how the artist has chosen to express certain ideas. The past few years I’ve really grown to respect artists who can break away from the mold and create something new and genuine – not for the sake of being innovative, but for the sake of creating something amazing. For a lot of people, the quality of the lyrics or the themes expressed are not important in a good dance track, but as an audience I think people should expect more from the music they listen to. As a DJ, this has really made me think more about the tracks that I play as well.

Give us some insight into your own personal experiences as a female member of the industrial community.

When I was old enough, I started going out the clubs religiously, several times a week. I loved the music, and the club setting, and eventually started up my own industrial club night that I DJ’d at. A lot of people ask if there are any advantages/disadvantages to being a female DJ. In my experience, I’ve noticed that people tend to react very positively toward female DJs, since it does tend to be more of a male-driven industry. However, being a female promoter was a bit more challenging. There were many times when I booked a show and the bands would step off the tour bus and walk up to my boyfriend, assuming that he was in charge. This always amused me, but I know I would have assumed the same thing.

“I didn’t take 20 years of piano lessons to just stand behind my instrument and dance.”

Kassi Cork of MEND, Chicago, IL

What was your initial reaction to Ad·ver·sary’s video at first, and how do you feel about it now that you’ve had time to think about it?

I know some people have called what Jairus did a stunt, but I don’t agree with that. I think the fact that he never directly attacks a person but instead the videos, lyrics and imagery by a performing act… He never once calls Andy, Thomas or their fans sexist or racist. I think if he were trying to pull some sort of stunt he could have easily pointed fingers at people specifically. The point of the matter is not whether or not so-and-so is sexist, but more the fact that their music is propagating the idea that it’s okay to be sexist or racist. This “scene” is, in my experience, largely made of people who have hardly fit the social norm, so I would think we would come from a background of not making people feel bad for what they look like or their gender. So it has always been strange to me that it is kind of a boys club, especially when a “jock” mentality is displayed.

Give us some insight into your own personal experiences as a female member of the industrial community.

Being a female in this scene is difficult. I have walked into venues with music gear slung over my shoulder and have had promoters say, “The merch booth is over there.” When I was in the band Cruciform Injection we did a video for our song “Vacant Bodies”. The director told our guitarist to totally shred on his instrument while I was instructed I would be the “hot one” and that I should just dance on a podium behind my keyboard. If you watch that video, there are very few shots of me because I refused. I didn’t take 20 years of piano lessons to just stand behind my instrument and dance. I cannot tell you the number of times people came up to me and be shocked and say, “You are actually playing?” But that isn’t just a gender problem in this scene, it’s everyone. So many people don’t even plug their instruments in or just turn the LFO knob. They kind of ruin it for the rest of us who spend hours practicing. It especially aggravates me when bands decide they needs a hot girl to just stand there and pretend to play. We need to stop accepting that; it offends not because I’m female, but because I’m a musician.

Honestly, I have thought about this for the last number of years, how few female electronic musicians we have onstage. The ones we do have are actually quite talented and I would love to see more of that. I am not sure why we don’t have more chicks. I seriously don’t know if it’s just the intimidation factor or if it’s just disinterest.

“The acceptance of the misogynist imagery and actions are a reflection of a bigger, deeper societal issue.”

Brittany Bindrim of I:Scintilla, Chicago, IL

What was your initial reaction to Ad·ver·sary’s video at first, and how do you feel about it now that you’ve had time to think about it?

When I first saw Ad·ver·sary’s video, I was impressed by Jairus’ bravery and the sincerity of his message. I commend his willingness to stand up for his beliefs and for facilitating a conversation on artists’ responsibility for the messages in their music and the prevalence of sexist and misogynist imagery in the industrial scene. Now that I’ve had a bit of time to digest the whole incident, I see both sides.

Yes industrial music sprouted from noble roots and rejected mediocrity and cultural biases. But you can’t expect the mainstream’s influence not to bleed in as a genre’s popularity rises and begins to creep out of the underground over time. I think ultimately the responsibility falls on both the artist for messages they put out there and on the audience for what the support and how they let it impact them. Although I don’t particularly like or support Combichrist and Nachtmahr’s depictions of submissive women getting the crap beat out of them or lyrics about how women should shut up and give head, it is their right to use them. Both bands are at the top of this scene and whether you like it our not, the audience has spoken with their support.

Give us some insight into your own personal experiences as a female member of the industrial community.

The industrial community has been mostly accepting of I:Scintilla, even though some would not consider our music to be of the genre. I would say it is a bit tough to be a woman in any male-dominated music scene whether it be metal, punk or industrial. For example, I think people are quicker to judge a female musician based on her level of attractiveness. To some, being physically attractive or sexual may discredit her talents. At the same time many of the top male musicians are handsome, physically fit, or sexually charged; most don’t judge men quite as harshly on their appearance. While the vast majority of my experiences in the scene have been positive, I have had some negative ones. I’ve met the most wonderful, open-minded human beings, as well as some of the biggest narcissistic, chauvinistic assholes. Andy of CC has been nothing but respectful and down-to-earth in my interactions with him. On the other end, I’ve met another top industrial band that promotes peace through their music and one of its members got wasted at a Chicago club and physically assaulted multiple women, including myself. So what does this tell you? To me it seems the acceptance of the misogynist imagery and actions are a reflection of a bigger, deeper societal issue. Maybe what we really need to do is to support women in the scene by treating them with the respect that one would give any human being.

“Why is it more common to play the slut than the intelligent bad-ass?”

Allison Ashley, Dallas, TX

It’s not often that you’re at the right place at the right time. Watching the Ad·ver·sary performance at Kinetik 5.0 was one of those moments. My gut reaction to their We Demand Better backing video at the festival is the same as it is now– pride, hope, intelligence, guts.

I didn’t expect the video to go as deep/long as it did, but every point communicated was necessary. It opened up the conversation the way it was meant to; the way it’s been brewing for quite some time. The conversation was not new. There was no a-ha moment. I was not enlightened. But I WAS empowered. Empowered for this small community of wonderfully creative, talented and passionate people who DO and SHOULD demand better of ourselves and each other. We don’t always have to agree, but there should be at the very least a mutual respect. Most of us are outsiders to some degree, be it for the way we look, dress or simply because we don’t have interests that fall into the normal or average camp. If we can’t respect one another, then where are we to go for solace? The same can be said for groups of the same race or sex, if we want to stick to what was called out in the backing video specifically.

I tend to have more male friends than female; couldn’t tell you why. Perhaps it’s because I’m extremely blunt and outspoken. I’m also in an industry regarding my career where it’s a boys club. So, I’ve typically felt since college as though I’ve had to prove myself because I’m a small female who looks about 10 years younger than my physical age. I’ve never played the victim, follower or slut; attitudes which sadly find their way into both the sex and scene as a whole. It angers me that the riot grrrls of the 90s seemingly faded away. If there’s one community where they should have continued and thrived, it’s the industrial scene. And I know we’re out there. Why is it more common to play the slut than the intelligent bad-ass? The influx in the last 10 years of “alt models” is blatant proof of that. There’s support from men of us riot grrrls; who want us to thrive. I married one. Those negative and disgusting labels that the majority of the world puts on the outsiders – driven by race, sex, sexual orientation – how can we not be supportive of the differences which makes this community great? How dare we support or tolerate such ignorance?

The bitterness, negativity and hatred that has come out of the We Demand Better discussion from both men and women is disgusting and depressing. It made me question if the industrial scene is really so vastly different or special. On the flip side, the support, understanding, and respect that has been reiterated and the rallying around the message that I believe Ad·ver·sary wanted to communicate to begin with ignites all of the feelings I had at the initial performance. Pride, hope, intelligence, guts. And that’s what I’ll continue to embrace.

“…there is a lot of anti-women bullshit going on in the mainstream these days and I would just hope industrial can be part of the solution and not add to the problem.”

N.G., Chicago, IL

What was your initial reaction to Ad·ver·sary’s video at first, and how do you feel about it now that you’ve had time to think about it?

Well, having just seen the video, as I was watching it I felt very touched that someone would go there and say something about what’s been going on. I think the video was well done and thought out, they did their research and presented facts, this is what it ACTUALLY looks like! This is what we have normalized in our minds as acceptable entertainment. People will probably say it’s just fantasy or that they are overreacting, but the bigger issue is that people will say that. What they are criticizing is just industrial’s take on the bigger picture, this happens in mainstream every day and it’s unfortunate that industrial has bought into that. They are just holding them accountable for their actions.

Give us some insight into your own personal experiences as a female member of the industrial community.

I feel like sometimes to be a girl in the industrial scene I have to be constantly sexualized in every facet, from clubs to concerts and the advertisements in between. Like it’s a boys club and I’m just here as added entertainment. That said, I don’t feel like industrial is a totally misogynistic world, all of my friends and musician friends are very smart and liberal minded people and over all I feel safe in the community. It’s when I see shit like what Combichrist puts out that makes me *face palm* for the whole scene because that’s not what it’s about. On the subject of racism, I think it was really important for them to bring that up because I think we have to be careful because industrial is also a very white scene and I think some of the imagery that is used can be insensitive and alienating to some people. At any rate there is a lot of anti-women bullshit going on in the mainstream these days and I would just hope industrial can be part of the solution and not add to the problem.

Jennifer Parkin of Ayria, Toronto, ON

What was your initial reaction to Ad·ver·sary’s video at first, and how do you feel about it now that you’ve had time to think about it?

I wasn’t present when the video aired, so I heard about it through everyone at the festival and watched it later. A lot of people came up to me that weekend specifically asking my thoughts on that video as a female musician in the industrial scene, but being asked this type of question is actually nothing new. I’d say in about 90% of any interview I do, there’s the obligatory question about what it’s like to be a female act in the industrial genre. It’s of course because it’s still very rare, as proven by that festival itself; something like 30 bands playing that weekend, not one of them female fronted. I’m not knocking the festival at all, I’ve played at it a few years ago, and had a fantastic experience! It’s strange though, about the question in general, reverse it, and ask any of the guy bands what it’s like to be a man in the industrial scene; doesn’t it seem so ridiculous? For some reason this genre is seemingly lagging behind other music genres for the success of women in the music realm. I’m not sure why. There’s no need to discuss the actual video, the content, the avenue chosen, no matter anyone’s thoughts on how it all went down, the important thing is that out of it, started a dialogue on the issue of misogyny and sexism. (I’m only addressing this issue; any others the video brought up is completely out of my experiences.) The video made me, and a lot of people feel, and think, and discuss, and that’s a good thing.

“The thought rarely occurs to some that a woman could write electronic music.”

Give us some insight into your own personal experiences as a female member of the industrial community.

There’s that question again!! Dang you! Argh! [Matt: I regret nothing!]

I’ve always thought there are 2 different ways to answer this question: A) You can pretend like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about? I’m just one of the guys, everything is totally awesome,” which, in some cases feels true to me. My experience and relationships with other musicians, bands, DJs, fans, and promoters and those I’ve worked with in the scene have been nothing but amazing, I feel camaraderie and acceptance and I’ve always been treated with the utmost respect. That’s why I won’t bash, accuse, or point fingers at any one other band about such a serious issue.

Or, B) “It can be tough to be taken as seriously as your male counterpart acts and I sometimes believe I’m stereotyped based on my gender.” My actual answer that I give regularly falls somewhere in the middle: Being a female trying to release music, tour, etc. is both a curse and a blessing. It’s a curse when you perhaps don’t get taken as seriously, when people lump you into some magical, all-encompassing “female vocals” genre in order to understand where you fit in. I never hear the end of people saying to me, “I don’t like female vocals.” I’m always so baffled by this, or how it all could possibly become one genre that they immediately assume they don’t like. Or perhaps they mean that they can’t relate to the female perspective or lyrics? But on the other hand, it’s sometimes a blessing is because, as a woman, being somewhat of a rarity in this music genre, I perhaps sometimes get special attention. People are curious, wanting to check out what I’m doing, because it is different among the majority of male fronted bands.

“How often would ‘He’s ugly’ be enough to describe the value of the music of a male band?”

There is still sexism I encounter. It’s subtle, and it exists: Sexism to me is the fact that I play a show, and someone in the audience goes up to my live keyboardist, or drummer to ask them about the music they’ve written. The response from my amazing live musicians (Mike, Eric, Joe, Jeff, and Kevin can back this up!) is, “No, ask her, it’s all her. I just play live, she wrote the songs.” The thought rarely occurs to some that a woman could write electronic music. The attitude I usually encounter is that, “she’s JUST the singer.” Then I get angry because I know tons of male bands where there is a male vocalist who perhaps has no part in writing the music. This man would never be referred to as, “just the singer,” as if writing vocals and singing is such an easy part of the music making process. It would also never be assumed that a male vocalist is dating someone in the band who makes the music, or a man would never be accused as having, “must have slept with someone to get booked on this show or tour.” Or hearing, “Have you heard music by Ayria?” “I hate that chick, she’s ugly.” We still judge and value women musicians mainly on the merits of their appearance. How often would “He’s ugly” be enough to describe the value of the music of a male band? Apparently, I also still get the clichéd, “show us it” cat calls while I’m on stage too, in the not clichéd, joking kind of way. I’ve never heard it from stage, but my girlfriends at shows say it happens. The combination of all of my experiences above represent an existent sexist attitude that I still face regularly that I still hope can stop or change.

A lot of music is created from the male perspective. Girls have so few idols now. Not enough powerful women to look up to or to nurture new creativity of women and encourage them to pursue the writing or making music. There are some that I know and love, but not a whole lot. Most of my female idols came from past decades. I recall a moment in the early ‘90s, a revolution in grunge/rock music where girls picked up guitars, started bands, and sang songs about rape, abuse and inequality; the Riot Grrl era of Post-feminism that sometimes made the audience uncomfortable to see it. Love it or hate it, they wanted to be heard and they were very angry. It’s been a while since there’s been any revolution or movement forward it feels.

I want to bring up image and branding, since it seems to all play in to how women and men are portrayed. I don’t think anyone argues that image is still very important in music for men and women. My own experiences and “image” with my music have gone extremely feminine; it’s weird, I didn’t start this way. It’s almost like everything I experienced pushed me towards the total opposite imagery common in the genre. I went for a “feminine and proud of it” aesthetic, to say, “Hey, yeah, I AM a girl, and I’ve embraced it and I’m not trying to be exactly like the guys to fit in. I never can be.” It was once suggested to me that maybe I should consider rolling in mud, or blood, or adapt to the darker, dirty, hyper-sexuallly charged imagery more common in industrial music to help my career and sell more CDs, to which I replied, “No.”

“This isn’t about what exists in the mainstream. It’s about us, and what we are willing to accept or reject from a mainstream world.”

It’s hard to discuss this issue without sounding angry, and I’m definitely not angry. I guess I get sad sometimes that 20 years later from the revolution I mentioned above that a lot of women started, we are still here, realizing that there’s still sexism, misogyny and inequality. I like the discussion on sexism this whole festival has sparked. I have nothing personal against any of the bands involved or being accused. As I said above, mostly every band I’ve met, I’ve had completely supportive experiences with. I’ve toured with Combichrist and they were the most professional, respectful, fun group of people to work with. I’ve danced to ‘80s music with Thomas Rainer, who’s also been accused in this situation, and I don’t know Jairus very well, but I really respect him for being a seemingly intelligent person who had the courage to speak his mind and share his beliefs.

I guess none of this is personal, or about the people behind these bands. It’s about the perception, the portrayal, imagery and impressionability of the culture, and what we will accept in our teeny-tiny scene where we are all able to reach out to one another, support each other, and shape what we want and expect. We can say things like, “That’s not sexist! Watch a Tarantino movie, nothing we haven’t seen before,” or, “Look at ads for Guess! Way more sexist,” or, “Nothing that mainstream porn hasn’t done before,” etc. But that’s just it. This isn’t about what exists in the mainstream. It’s about us, and what we are willing to accept or reject from a mainstream world. We seem to want to define ourselves as being part of this little so-called scene, our festivals, our music, our bands that we feel a sense of ownership towards; therefore we each have the power and responsibility to make it what we want, and what we want to be part of or move towards. So, we can’t blame the external culture for what’s already out there and influencing the masses.

——————

Matt: Before I begin, I’d like to thank the women who contributed their words. I’m happy to call all of you my friends and I’m glad you were willing to put your thoughts out there. Thank you all.

For my part, I’m incredibly proud of Jairus and Nick for what they did and I’m overwhelmingly happy to call them my friends. Too much of industrial music has devolved into people sitting around at clubs, shunning anything outside of their comfort zone, focusing on nothing but the surface aesthetics and criticizing anyone who says anything that calls attention to issues intellectually deeper than making fun of someone’s clothes. This has become blazingly obvious from the distressingly anti-intellectual attitude taken by an unhealthy number of people that have expressed their opinion.

People have called Jairus “the real fascist” for supposedly trying to dictate what people should listen to; others have made the familiar, self-satisfying argument that political correctness does not belong in industrial, or have complained that they feel persecuted for liking Combichrist or Nachtmahr and like they are being judged for it. All of these arguments are, frankly, reactionary bullshit. Nobody, Jairus included, has said that Andy, Thomas, or their fans are bad people, and that you should feel bad if you listen to their music. Rather, the contemporary industrial scene is being directly challenged to look at itself and ask itself why themes like militant nationalism and sexism are being successfully marketed to them.

Therein lays the problem with industrial fans being lulled into a false sense of insulation. The industrial scene talks a big talk about railing against mainstream society; this is natural, considering it does have a rich history of accepting social outcasts, a history it should be proud of. Yet instead of diligently challenging the more insidious facets of mainstream culture when it creeps in, the industrial scene has taken to sticking its head in the sand and pretending those facets are just examples of “controversial material” when they are presented to them by familiar figures in industrial music. Violence against women and disturbing nationalist imagery are not controversial; they are found in all manner of media from the mainstream culture. To be entirely blunt, it doesn’t suddenly make it okay for you as a consumer of media to be accepting of nasty, hateful shit just because it’s being delivered to you by a guy with a throat tattoo instead of an elite A&R team at a major label.

Being a fan of industrial music isn’t about being thrown nothing but softballs.

Tangentially, there’s also been some talk about the festival being an inappropriate place for a political statement to be made. Bear in mind that going to an industrial show once meant that a small British man was going to scream in your face and jerk around like he was suffering a seizure while the rest of the band attempted to produce music that would make you spontaneously void your bowels. Being a fan of industrial music isn’t about being thrown nothing but softballs. It’s sad that many modern industrial music aficionados have become so coddled and comfortable in their musical experience that being confronted with a serious question makes them angry. Don’t go out of your way to listen to music that sounds like angry robots screaming at you and then expect a PLUR-fest where nobody will ever speak to you sternly, dig?

One thing Jairus did absolutely right during the discussion of this (and something I, quite frankly, should have adhered to more strongly when I found myself in the brouhaha last year) is not pointing a finger at the artists in question and shouting, “J’accuse!” Andy went on record saying he was veering Combichrist away from the macho Tarantino imagery because he felt he was being taken out of context. Good for him. He’s a talented individual, an excellent performer, and he is capable both of success without utilizing lowbrow methods, and setting an example by rejecting them. I wish him luck and I’m interested in seeing what the next permutation of Combichrist will be. Consider, if you will, probably the most canny, thought-provoking quote Jairus has expressed throughout this entire episode:

“…When I say that we should demand better, I’m not just talking about better imagery, better music, better t-shirts – I’m talking about better critical thinking, better exploration of symbols and aesthetic, better relationship with the people in your audience that you run the risk of alienating. I introduced myself and spoke to Andy after we both played, and he told me he didn’t mean anything racially charged in the photo, and I said the same thing to him that I’m saying to you: It doesn’t matter what you meant, what matters is that you think about the impact your actions will have on people who don’t have the context that you do. That’s what I want out of all of this. I don’t want Andy to be broke and homeless, I don’t want people to stop going to shows. I want us — all of us, artists and audience alike — to demand better from our community.”

There’s no way I could have said it better myself. Industrial has a long history of challenging symbolism and ideology, of making people think about uncomfortable topics, of engaging in a Nietzschean assault upon familiar, accepted notions in order to challenge the ability of those notions to stand up to criticism and thereby be found valid. For this proud legacy of iconoclasm to mean anything, the industrial scene needs to be able to stand up to that same criticism from within, to be able to express the self-awareness necessary to accept that we’re not always right about ourselves. If industrial music loses its ability to confront dangerous and uncomfortable content, whether that content is found without or within, it will have lost that vitality that made it mean something to so many in the first place. It will be a lost cause. Please think about that next time someone challenges you to think critically about the music you love. It’s about more than you. It’s about us, those that came before us, and those that will come after us.

In closing, I, as a DJ, erstwhile musician and unapologetic fan of industrial music, demand better. I hope you will consider doing the same, whether you’re a musician, a DJ, a promoter, a journalist, or a person that just loves clanky robot music. We can maintain the legacy of industrial music, but only if we stand up and give a shit about it.

Having spent the last dozen-odd years DJing all over North America, cultivating a nuanced and unabashed love for industrial, and analyzing the industrial subculture from an anthropological perspective, Matt Pathogen thinks he knows what he’s talking about. He’s more than happy to tell you ALL ABOUT IT.