Violenza simbolica e asimmetrie di genere in Italia

In the third millennium, inequalities and discriminations, built around individualized differences and collective belongings, continue to persist, even in Italy. The category of symbolic violence (Bourdieu 1977, 1998) is useful in explaining how social stratifications are reproduced, even without an explicit exercise of violence (Elias and Scotson 1994). Indeed, the privileges - in terms of opportunities and resources - that result from being in position of advantage in a given social structure are situated in a frame of meaning shared by both those who benefit from them and those who are subjected to them. Such an experience makes them obvious, inevitable, "natural." and seemingly insuperable. This article begins from a study of the topic of gender-based violence against women carried out since 2010; in particular, it examines the narratives of Latin-American women living in the Veneto region and engaged in family and/or professional relationships with Italian men and women, and highlights the model and gender roles they refer to in the construction of meaning in which they situate their experiences and decisions. Furthermore, the article analyzes the process of hypersexualization that naturalizes racist and sexist discriminations.