The man and the meat : A critical discourse analysis of the SVT series Köttets lustar.

In december 2017 Sweden’s public service operation Sveriges television launched the series Köttets lustar. The series is about the Swedish comedian Henrik Schyffert when he explores the Swedish meat industry. During the series, two piglets named after the Swedish princesses Viktoria and Madeleine moves in to his flat in Stockholm, as a result of a bet he has with his son Limpan. Limpan, who loves animals and thinks that Schyffert eats too much meat wants Schyffert to get to know an animal from the meat industry, and decide whether he could kill an animal he has gotten to know or not. If he lets the pigs live in the end of the series, then he must eat vegetarian food for the rest of his life and if he decides to kill them, then he can continue to consume meat. During the series, and before Schyffert decides whether the pigs should live or die, he examines whether he should eat vegetarian food or meat, and what consequences vegetarian food has for his masculinity. The aim with this analysis was to examine the series Köttets lustar and how it depicts men’s relationship to meat consumption and the consequences it entails, seen from a animal rights perspective. During this analysis I used the Norman Fairclough critical discourse analysis with its three dimensions: texts, discourse practice and the sociocultural practice. My analysis showed that meat consumption is an important part of the masculinity and in Schyfferts case he wasn’t ready to give up meat because of a fear that a life as a vegetarian could deprive him of his masculinity. The series also showed meats impact on the climate and the fact that animals in the meat industry also have feelings and are intelligent. The main conclusion of the analysis was that meat in relation to animal rights is very complex because meat’s importance for the masculinity. Because of the society where the man is norm and animals, like women, are defined as the other, the man’s need for meat has a bigger importance than whenever the animals is abused or not, which is something that shows in the series