Earlier this year, Sydney-via-LA producer Anna Lunoe decried the inappropriate attitudes towards female musicians after being the subject of a borderline sexist interview, calling for an end to the objectification of women in music.

A number of female musicians have also taken a stand in the ongoing gender debate; 17 year old New Zealand sensation Lorde declared “I’m not a spreadsheet with hair” in a sophisticated and striking anti-sexism editorial about her swift rise to fame, while Chvrches singer Lauren Mayberry penned a poignant piece that tackled the misogyny she regularly faces in the music industry.

In fact, barely a week goes by where we don’t hear about something horrifyingly misogynystic in music such as MC Eso’s jokes about domestic violence against women, or Cee Lo Green’s idea that it isn’t rape if you’re not awake.

But perhaps one of the most conspicuous examples of the misogyny that plagues female musicians is in interviews, and particularly it seems in radio interviews.

Need we remind you of the New York radio station that inappropriately grilled Iggy Azalea about being assaulted at her concerts and “intruded” by her boyfriend, taking a page from the tasteless playbook of Aussie shock jock Kyle Sandilands, who similarly quizzed Lorde about having a lesbian relationship with a fellow pop star.

Now we can add another example to the hall of shame, this time on Dutch radio during an interview with Charli XCX.

According to NME, the incident happened live on Dutch station 3FM when host Giel Beelan asked the singer to take part in a contest to say “good morning” in the “most sensual way”. During the segment, Beelan also asked the singer if she had her “hands on [her] body”. When the singer replied that her hands were behind her back, Beelen then stated, “Oh, I thought you were fingering yourself or something.”

You can have a listen to the cringeworthy interview below.

At first Charli XCX keeps the mood in the interview light, but after the ordeal was over she took to Twitter immediately. Posting on her account, XCX wrote “just got asked if I was fingering myself on the radio. s/o sexism. It’s the best”.

Beelen later responded to Charli XCX’s tweet, quoting the singer’s Icona Pop co-write ‘I Don’t Care (I Love It)’.

Believe it or not, that wasn’t the only questionable statement Giel made during the course of the interview, though. The DJ also manages to insult female musicians on the whole in a rather backhanded attempt to pay XCX a compliment.

“Normally, it’s not done to have a girl band, because it looks great, but it sounds terrible,” Beelen says to the singer. “Well, that’s massively offensive,” Charli hits back, to which Beelen responded, “I think you have a good band that not even looks good but sounds good as well.”

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