Ariel Pink's Charlotte Ercoli: 'Feminists are trying to victimise me for consensually wrestling my boyfriend on stage'

'It's the oppression Olympics. I'm not competing.'

(Ben Horton/Getty)

Ariel Pink came in for criticism at the weekend for his behaviour on stage at a show in San Francisco, which apparently saw him "pin down" bandmate and girlfriend Charlotte Ercole and "get on top of her" during the set.

There were apparently a few walk-outs and one fan, who described the scene on Reddit, said they were "possibly turned off from him forever".

Amid the furore, however, it seems no-one thought to ask Ercoli how she felt about the behaviour. After the story was picked up by Pitchfork, she wrote in a series of tweets (all sic):

"Wow. Turns out a girl can't have fun with her boyfriend on stage without being victimized by feminists. Could not be more bummed.

"Feminists r trying to victimize me for consensually wrestling/manhandling my bf on stage. It's the oppression olympics. Im not competing

"Don't feel bad for me. Feel bad for my boyfriend. Those are heavy words Y'all. Take it from me between ariel and I I'm the creep

"If pichtfork wants to write a hit piece on ariel about how he treats me they should interciew ME. That is if they care about the truth??"

Ariel Pink did, however, express regret over on his Twitter account, writing: "I'm tone deaf and not sensitive enough to the real plight of women these days. my behavior onstage was gross and I can't defend it."

Ercole later clarified in a statement to Pitchfork:

"Ariel and I have been together for years. We are just two Jewish guys up there roasting each other. In this political climate people are very sensitive. And for good reasons that we stand by. I am sorry if we made anyone uncomfortable but I can surely report it's all in good fun on our end and we were just feeling “a little keyed up”/rowdy to be kicking off the tour. We are very close and can play around with each other in that way, but have tamed it down “up there” in order to avoid stirring up fear. Thank you all for the concern. I own ariels ass, don't worry."