Politics in patriarchal key on the example of local election 2012 in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The present paper analyzes the status of women politicians and the amount of their representation in the discourse of four daily newspapers (Dnevni Avaz, Oslobođenje, Glas Srpske and Press) during local pre-electoral campain in B&H in 2012. Content analysis which was conducted in this research shows that female politicians are under-represented and invisible. This conclusion was drawn based on the frequency of their newspaper representation in aggregate and in specific journalists' forms of reporting. Through techniques of discursive negotiations of gender in and through media, women's "simbolic annihiliation" is thus brought about, having at the same time ontological consequences with respect to the status of women in matters regarding res publica. At the same time, by using the semiotics of Judith Butler, it is highlighted that this imposition of women's subordination, which is in its very essence patriarchal, makes room for disidentificational resistance through gender-sensitive performative acts and political engagements.