‘SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH’ Sound, silence and gender-based violence

This chapter unpicks the nuanced ways that sound and silence mediate experiences of gender-based violence (GBV). We do this by drawing on extracts of qualitative data from a range of research projects that aimed to understand how women and girls articulate their experiences of GBV. In our discussion, we explore (i) how sound is implicated in the perpetration of GBV (ii) the ways in which sound makes an impact on victims of GBV (iii) the ways in which sound is used in victims’ responses to GBV, and (iv) how sound and silence are implicated in articulating the problem of GBV. We interrogate how various forms of auditory stimuli constitute and contribute to the perpetration of, and responses to victimisation. Importantly, we also attend to how ‘silence’, when viewed both interpersonally and institutionally, can act to normalise and perpetuate GBV.