Our society is a patriarchal one, in which men hold social, cultural, and economic power. The principles of patriarchy are embedded at all levels of our social structure. Throughout the long history of advertising, we can observe how patriarchy has significantly influenced both the representation of women in advertisements and the role of women within the advertising profession. This master’s thesis foregrounds the question of sexism in Slovenian advertisements and investigates whether it manifests through the use of sexualized images of women, gender stereotypes, and sexist humor. In the theoretical part, I provide a historical overview of the development of advertising, focusing on the position of women, their representation in advertisements, and their relationship to the advertising industry. By defining patriarchy and patriarchal advertising, I explain why and how sexism emerges in our society, how various forms of sexism contribute to its presence in advertising, and the most common ways in which it appears. The empirical part presents an original quantitative study conducted on a sample of Slovenian advertisements submitted to the Slovenski oglaševalski festival (SOF) in the years 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. The findings reveal that while sexism does appear in Slovenian advertisements, it does so to a lesser extent. However, in the period from 2004 to 2011, sexism more frequently manifested through the use of sexualized representations of women. No consistent pattern could be identified regarding the presence of gender stereotypes or sexist humor.
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