Symbolic Violence In Sirlei Dias De Carvahlo Pinto

Acts of violence amongst humans has transcended natural borders, time and has transformed in meaning. While we are often quick to associate violence with its physical definition and powerful images of direct physical harm towards individuals, its roots stem into deeper and darker spaces than the bruises and bodies we see. Physical violence has permeated through history because of symbolic violence. This term represents the “censored, euphemized and socially recognized harm that does not take place overtly and must be disguised under the veil of an enchanted relationship” (Bordeiu, 191). The offensive jokes in good humor that reflect alarming negative stereotypes about groups of individuals represents the presence of symbolic violence, and
This narrative of physical violence is indicative of the more deeply engrained notion of symbolic violence against black women in Brazil. These men beat Pinto because they believed as a young black woman in Brazil her space was in prostitution. It is not uncommon “in contemporary Brazil [for] phenotype to be used as the basis for occupational and status based distinctions” (Caldwell, 51). Dark skinned women are often portrayed as either the bottom rung of prostitutes, earning less than mulata sex workers, or as “domestic labor[ers] that historically have ensured the survival and well-being of white families” (Caldwell, 52). Black women are expected to be surrogate mothers or caretakers because of the societally recognized places they have been assigned to. Although these stereotypes do not directly intend to cause harm or violence to individuals, they “grant African women the dubious distinction of being immortalized as domestic servants and sexual objects in nationalist discourse and legitimized sexual exploitation and economic domination” (Caldwell,