I am an undergraduate at a US college. I wanted to take a course in a specific area of my major so that I could do better research during the summer, and I have extensive industry experience in this area so the requisite courses are much less relevant. I tried to respectfully ask permission from the department undergraduate advisor but he refused permission right away and wasn't interested in what I had to say. 

In a last-ditch attempt to be able to take the course, I emailed a higher-ranking member of the department explaining the issue and asking if she could help. This professor forwarded my email to the original advisor, who immediately sent me a nasty email saying that I don't dare ask someone else after I asked him. 

While I can understand why the advisor reacted this way, why would a department member forward an email explaining a problem between a professor and student to the professor? I cannot wrap my head around it. Is this normal behavior for academic faculty?