ABSTRACT
Violence is a political and physical concept and takes many forms. J. Lokaneeta distinguishes between structural violence, representational and symbolic violence, epistemic violence, racialised violence, and gendered violence. Feminist activists and researchers have raised awareness of violence against women and helped create supporting networks for women who have been subject to violence. The status of 'emancipatory violence', as an idea and a practice, is likely to remain contested. Focusing both on individual and collective experiences of violence and resistance, feminist theory and practice have significantly expanded our understanding of complex and multilayered forms of violence, as well as their physical and discursive effects. In the 1960s, female public intellectuals like the political theorist Hannah Arendt, the writer Susan Sontag, the student activist Bernadine Dohrn, and the journalist Ulrike Meinhof were sought-after speakers at political debates. Protest movements and acts of resistance have historically catalysed social and political change, but their effects are often contradictory and at least partly unintended.
