Definitions of violence are contested, ranging from minimalistic conceptions privileging physical attacks to more comprehensive approaches recognizing a broad array of physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violations. Investigating the phenomenon of violence against women in politics, I theorize semiotic violence as a fifth form of violence against women, one that mobilizes sexist words and images to injure, discipline, and subjugate women. While perpetrated against individual women, these acts amplify gender inequalities by suggesting to the general public that women as a group are unworthy. Drawing on research in multiple disciplines, as well as a global database of news items collected between 2014 and 2019, I identify two modes of semiotic violence: rendering women invisible and rendering women incompetent. The first seeks to erase women as political actors and deny their right to speak and be heard in political debates. The second rejects women’s qualifications to serve in political roles based on gendered tropes related to temperament, knowledge, sexual objectification, and femininity. Semiotic violence is not only part of a broader continuum of violence, I suggest, but also the most widespread, concealed, and trivialized form of violence against women. Recognizing semiotic violence is thus important for both feminist research and activism, creating new vocabularies to speak about women’s experiences—and, in turn, challenging the structural inequalities that normalize these harms.

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对妇女的符号暴力：理论化对女性政治家的伤害

暴力的定义存在争议，从赋予人身攻击特权的简约概念到承认广泛的身体、性、心理和经济侵权行为的更全面的方法。通过调查政治中针对女性的暴力现象，我将符号暴力理论化为针对女性的暴力的第五种形式，一种利用性别歧视的文字和图像来伤害、惩戒和征服女性的形式。这些行为虽然针对个别女性，但通过向公众暗示女性作为一个群体是不值得的，从而放大了性别不平等。借助多学科研究以及 2014 年至 2019 年间收集的全球新闻项目数据库，我确定了两种符号暴力模式：使女性隐形和使女性无能。第一个旨在消除女性作为政治参与者的地位，并剥夺她们在政治辩论中发言和发表意见的权利。第二种基于与气质、知识、性客观化和女性气质相关的性别比喻，拒绝女性担任政治角色的资格。我认为，符号暴力不仅是更广泛的暴力连续体的一部分，而且是针对妇女的最普遍、隐蔽和琐碎的暴力形式。因此，认识到符号暴力对于女权主义研究和行动主义都很重要，创造新的词汇来谈论女性的经历——反过来，挑战使这些伤害正常化的结构性不平等。第二种基于与气质、知识、性客观化和女性气质相关的性别比喻，拒绝女性担任政治角色的资格。我认为，符号暴力不仅是更广泛的暴力连续体的一部分，而且是针对妇女的最普遍、隐蔽和琐碎的暴力形式。因此，认识到符号暴力对于女权主义研究和行动主义都很重要，创造新的词汇来谈论女性的经历——反过来，挑战使这些伤害正常化的结构性不平等。第二种基于与气质、知识、性客观化和女性气质相关的性别比喻，拒绝女性担任政治角色的资格。我认为，符号暴力不仅是更广泛的暴力连续体的一部分，而且是针对妇女的最普遍、隐蔽和琐碎的暴力形式。因此，认识到符号暴力对于女权主义研究和行动主义都很重要，创造新的词汇来谈论女性的经历——反过来，挑战使这些伤害正常化的结构性不平等。