Is Violence a Form of Communication?

Is violence a form of communication? In order to answer this question I believe a bit of background information is necessary. First, we must have a clear understanding of what communication is. Second, we must have a clear understanding of not just violence, but gendered violence since this class focuses on the implications of living gendered lives.

Julia T. Wood, the author of Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture defines communication as a dynamic, systemic process in which meanings are created and reflected in and through humans' interactions with symbols. So in a nutshell communication is an ever changing, organized process in which humans use words or symbols to convey a desired meaning.

Wood's definition of gendered violence is pretty straight forward and she describes it as any physical, verbal, emotional, sexual, and visual brutality that is inflicted disproportionately or exclusively on members of one sex. The generic definition of violence is almost identical except it isn't inflicted exclusively on members of another sex.

So.... is violence a form of communication? I believe the answer to this question could be YES or NO, but I would have to argue that violence is NOT a form of communication. Instead, I think communication can be a form of violence because communication is a process in which we use words or symbols to convey a certain meaning.

In my eyes violence is the meaning somebody is attempting to convey through words or symbols. So violence is the message someone is trying to get across to another person or group of people by doing anything from screaming obscenities (words) to raising their middle finger accompanied by a gruesome gaze (symbols).

Violence is not a form of communication... Communication is a form of violence!