En sandödla på dejt : En diskursanalytisk undersökning av hur berättelser om djur är präglade av mänskliga föreställningar om genus och sexualitet

Sammanfattning: In this thesis I aim to examine the ways in which cultural beliefs and norms about gender and sexuality are shaped by discourses on animals and nature. I have done a participatory observation on two different guided tours of animals and analyze some information about the animals at a Swedish zoo. With a discourse analytical approach, I analyzed transcribed material from the guided tours of animals and information about animals from a gender and queer theoretical perspective, based on Judith Butler's understanding of the heterosexual matrix and her performativity theory. In my analysis, based on my chosen theoretical framework and with support of previous research, I have seen that the way people talk about animals is characterized by human notions of gender and sexuality. In addition to human notions of gender and sexuality, I have seen human notions of ethnocentrism and the division of labor between male and female. Furthermore, I have seen that some of these texts about animals challenge ideas about the division of labor in the home between male and female.