ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the function of symbolic representation with regards to political control. It focuses on the analysis of institutional discourses on gender-based violence. The chapter explains the analysis of institutional discourses on gender-based violence. It adopts a definition of gender-based violence also employed in the Quing project that takes up and broadens the United Nations (UN) definition of gender violence. The chapter analyses public policies on gender violence to explore the function of political control because these policies, in shaping states' control over people's lives, affect people's emotional responses and perceptions about what is the legitimate behaviour for women and men. Italy and Spain express discursive constructions of gender-based violence that are meaningful to illustrate how states can exercise political control over women and men's lives through their construction of gender more progressively in the Spanish than in the Italian case.
