“Symbolic violence” and Dalit feminism: possibilities emerging from a Dalit feminist standpoint reading of Bourdieu

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, I work with feminist standpoint theory to rethink Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of “symbolic violence” and “habitus.” When read through feminist standpoint theory, the concept of symbolic violence may provide a missing link between subjective experiences and invisibilized forms of structural violence, and, I argue, can connect the structural and the immediate to form a powerful discursive methodological tool. This tool can help the broader women’s movement to realign its strategies to focus on the operational forces behind violence. Bourdieu envisioned gender equality as a near impossibility, and masculine domination as the status quo for the foreseeable future. However, the achievements of the Dalit women’s movement in India provide ample evidence that marginalized people can bring about sustainable and long-term political and social change. Shifts in the habitus of gender have indeed resulted in changes in the fields of caste and politics. Thus, this article explains how Bourdieu’s concepts, while insufficient on their own, can be reconfigured to assist in emancipatory feminist projects.