Violence against women is everywhere — and metal isn’t an exception

Violence against women is not “a few isolated cases.” It is a systemic problem across Europe. Need examples?

Germany

• In 2023, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) recorded over 256,000 cases of intimate partner violence.

• More than 70% of the victims were women.

• Every three days, a woman in Germany is killed by her current or former partner.

United Kingdom

• According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 1 in 4 women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime.

• 1 in 10 women experience sexual violence from a partner or ex-partner.

• In 2023 alone, 1.7 million women were affected by domestic abuse.

These aren’t “horror stories.”
They reflect what women live with every single day.
The question is never if — but how often, where, and in which form.

Many women only recognise violence long after it’s happened — because it often starts quietly.

It begins with:

• control

• monitoring social media

• victim blaming

• sexualised comments

• humiliation

• manipulation

• gaslighting

• abuse of power

These mechanisms reinforce each other. And they work because women are taught from childhood to stay small, apologise, and blame themselves.

The truth is simple:
Women don’t owe anyone their bodies.
Not a yes. Not a smile. Not understanding.

Metal loves to present itself as counterculture: free, wild, untamed.
But patriarchal structures don’t magically disappear because a scene is loud.

In metal, too, we see:

• inappropriate behaviour at concerts

• uncomfortable “fan interactions”

• sexualised comments about female musicians

• managers crossing boundaries

• power imbalances inside bands

• backstage situations that become unsafe

• comment sections that belittle, mock, or dehumanise women

Recent examples — including Dogma and Cradle of Filth — show just how deeply these issues run.

Women in metal are forced into an impossible double standard:
loud enough to be taken seriously,
but quiet enough not to be labelled “dramatic,” “difficult,” or “a problem.”

A toxic tightrope.

These are not individual tragedies.
They are patterns.
And they continue because they’re rarely named clearly — especially by men.

What needs to change?

• listen to women

• believe women

• respect boundaries

• call out abusive behaviour (yes, even among friends)

• show solidarity, not performativity

• demand accountability

• question the structures in bands, agencies, venues, and media

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is a reminder that women’s safety is still not guaranteed — not at home, not on festival grounds, not in daily life, and not in the metal scene.

Note: This article was created with assistance from AI tools. Topic selection, analysis, and final editing were carried out by Dark Divas.