“May our voices unite and bring light, joy and happiness to this world of injustice and inequality. Smash the patriarchy,” said Dreadbox in a statement on the company’s newest analog polysynth, the Nymphes. Despite the boldly supportive statement, however, the company has drawn less than savory reactions from the public upon announcing the release of the synth.
While the analog synth maker goes even further to instruct prospective users, those potential buyers aren’t quite happy with the way the company seems to be piggybacking off of a cause without actually supporting it in any way. “Each time you play a note on this synthesizer, imagine that you soothe their pain away and you will become a better human being and synth player,” reads the statement.
“Hey @DreadboxFx, were there any women involved in the making or marketing of this synth?” asked one Twitter user in response to the Nymphes’ announcement. Others took a tongue-in-cheek approach to reacting, creating memes to make light of the bizarre marketing campaign.
Still, many others were even less enthused. The Blessed Madonna responded with sheer confusion, quoting Dreadbox’s tweet and responding with a simple, one-word reaction: “Wut.”
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“As a nonbinary person with serious PTSD from a 10-year long abusive relationship… This is absolute bullshit,” another user chimed in. “At the VERY least provide material support to charities doing actual work in this sort of area.”
“We are taking advantage of Dreadbox’s position to speak up for such matters,” said Dimitra Manthou, Dreadbox’s creative director and co-founder to Resident Advisor in response. “The weird thing is that cis straight men are offended by my statement, where women, trans, abused men and women send me supportive messages and thank us for doing this. We cannot stand silent in front of any inequality and we are taking advantage of Dreadbox’s position to speak up for such matters.”
Despite the criticism, Dreadbox has not yet revealed if it will use any proceeds from sales of the €499 synth to support womens’ charities. A statement at the bottom of the Nymphes release page reads: “Support charities for abused women. We do the same.”
