Gender, power and violence. An intersubjective approach

Abstract

In this article we will theoretically address the relationship between power and violence against women from a gender and Foucaultian perspective. Starting from the feminist conceptualization of structural inequality, we delve into the intersubjective dimension of gender asymmetry. The social devaluation of femininity and women is expressed in the pragmatic register of interaction as a tendency to non-reciprocity in recognition. Specifically, we will read this recognition deficit as a status inequality sustained in complex and variable objectification processes. In this way, violence is and derives from this reproduction or reinforcement of asymmetry. Furthermore, considering the constitutive sociality of the subjects, we will think about the effect of interactions, regulated by gender norms and by inequality of status, in the sedimentation of dispositions to action, emotions and in the psychic tension between self-affirmation and recognition. The conjunction of these factors in male and female subjectivation provides explanatory elements of violence. Finally, we reflect on love as a specific register of action, a register that the status system can naturalize and that is affected by the experience of gender, given the symbolic centrality of love in the construction of femininity. A register that can move towards that of violence when inequality is questioned and equivalence is demanded.