Abstract (eng)
This thesis is an analysis of the discourse on biological sex in the biology textbook Linder Biologie. Before, there was no special method for applying discourse analysis to the presentation of sex in biology textbooks. This may be due to the fact that former feminist textbook analyses mostly focussed on storybooks and on the stereotypical representation of women. Furthermore, sex is an integral part of biology classes. Therefore, the presentation of sex appears to be an important area of research.
For this investigation a new method was developed, by combining and adapting discourse analysis by Jäger (2012), textbook analysis by Markom and Weinhäupl (2007) and text- and context analysis by Arndt and Hornscheid (2004). Queer-theory, feminist science studies and the requirements by the bmukk were the theoretical background for generating central questions for the analysis. The investigation comprised three main topics: biologism, social contexts and heteronormativity. Additionally, the presentation of genetics and endocrinology in the textbook was dealt with in more detail.
The analysis showed that discourse on sex can be found in most chapters of the book, but is focused mainly on the chapter of ethology. It turned out, that this chapter was especially problematic for biologistic argumentations of sex-related behaviour. Those argumentations are not questioned within the book. The sex discourse in Linder can be described as heteronormative, although homosexuality and transsexuality are mentioned. There was little social context representation and therefore it can be claimed, that the demands of the bmukk were not met. Analysis showed that the genetic sex discourse was oversimplified and represented in a dichotomic manner. In the chapter of endocrinology both; dichotomic approaches and continuous approaches of sex could be found.