Symbolic violence (n.) is acts of humiliation and degradation through which a social hierarchy is reinforced.
Symbolic violence (n.) is fundamentally the imposition of categories of thought and perception upon dominated social agents who, once they begin observing and evaluating the world in terms of those categories and without necessarily being aware of the change in their perspective then perceive the existing social order as just.
Symbolic violence (n.) is, in areas such as gender dominance or racism, discipline used against another to confirm that individual's placement in a social hierarchy.
Symbolic violence (n.) is tacit, almost unconscious modes of domination occurring within everyday social habits.
Symbolic violence (n.) is the gentle, invisible form of violence.
Symbolic violence (n.) is the norms and values espoused by dominant social actors in the society, 'naturalized' as self-evident 'truth' and accepted as such by the dominated populace.
Symbolic violence (n.) is the self-sanctioning that occurs in linguistic markets.
Symbolic violence (n.) is violence wielded with tacit complicity between its victims and its agents, insofar as both remain unconscious of submitting to or wielding it.