Gender violence: marketplace violence and symbolic violence in social movements

ABSTRACT

Drawing on a retrospective case study involving LGBTQ populations and the tobacco industry, we demonstrate how a duplicitous stance by Big Tobacco illuminates the ways that symbolic violence is perpetrated on consumers. We define marketplace violence as the actions and narratives of powerful market actors that perpetuate inequalities that less powerful market actors experience. This research delineates how marketplace relationships perpetuate gender and sexual orientation discrimination, and how powerful market actors engage in invidious action under the guise of community support, thereby undermining community-based social movements.

KEYWORDS:

• Marketplace violence
• symbolic violence
• gender
• LGBTQ
• social movements

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Diane M. Martin

Diane M. Martin is a Professor of Marketing in the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing at RMIT University. Her research focuses on consumer culture, market development, gender and sustainability. She is a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum and the author of the book Sustainable Marketing. Diane has published in numerous top journals in marketing and communication.

Shelagh Ferguson

Shelagh Ferguson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing, Otago Business School. Her research interests include the adoption of sociological approaches to challenge and critically review our collective and individual marketplace practices specifically focusing on identity, videography, tobacco control and gender. She has published in the European Journal of Marketing, Marketing Theory, Annals of Tourism Research and Tobacco Control among others.

Janet Hoek

Janet Hoek is a Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago. She co-directs ASPIRE 2025, one of the University of Otago's Research Centres whose members work to support the Government's goal of becoming an essentially smokefree nation by 2025. She has received several large external grants; her work has informed policy on plain packaging, tobacco retailing, and regulation of electronic nicotine delivery systems.

Catherine Hinder

Catherine Hinder is a research student in Department of Marketing, Otago Business School. Her research focusses on health outcomes and community engagement with health services.