Consensual Incest
| Author | Message |
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| skystiles. Banned  Age: - Gender: - Posts: 13229 | |
| Fezzik Salute You in Your Grave  Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 2748 | ^Yeah, but this time we have enough knowledge to know the ramifications of allowing multiple generations of incest. And yeah, things like homosexuality are more socially acceptable now than they used to be, but that doesn't mean there are any more gay people now. If incestuous relationships were legalized tomorrow, would people suddenly be attracted to their brothers? Would they be attracted to their relatives even fifty years down the line? Facts of life say that it's pretty hard to be attracted to someone who pushed you off the swings, made fun of you, and left his underwear in your bathroom, whether it's legal or not. |
| skystiles. Banned Age: - Gender: - Posts: 13229 | Again, I'm not thinking of tomorrow. Coming back to the homosexuality thing, attitudes on it did not change overnight. Social change tends to take a fairly long time. When people are allowed to do something, more people will do it. It's a rule of thumb. If people are raised in a society where incest is seen as acceptable, over time, they may be open to the idea of incest with a relative. Whether or not they act on it. That's not a healthy family environment, thinking your relatives are fair game. If the family foundation is weakened or rocked, such will happen to society. |
| Fezzik Salute You in Your Grave Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 2748 | ^But making it legal won't make it socially acceptable. Like I said, most voluntary cases of incest usually have extenuating circumstances - allowing incestuous relationships only allows two consenting adults to be together. |
| skystiles. Banned Age: - Gender: - Posts: 13229 | Making it legal will make it much easier to gain social acceptance. |
| Fezzik Salute You in Your Grave Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 2748 | ^But not easier for people to be attracted to their close relatives. |
| Ignore Alien Orders Salute You in Your Grave  Age: 35 Gender: Female Posts: 2026 | My aversion to incest has nothing to do with social acceptance. That's my baby brother, that's the kid who used to chuck water balloons at me and the kid who I used to threaten bullies for, he's the kid I've had huge fights with and the kid I feel the need to protect all the time. Socially acceptable or not, the idea of changing that seems disgusting to me. It's like what you said about the roles people have in each others lives: very few want to take on multiple roles in someone's life. It's not like society teaching us incest is wrong is the only thing that makes people not pursue incestuous relationships: most people would just really never have any interest, whether it's considered acceptable or not. |
| Stripey-Stripes. Motor Baby  Age: 35 Gender: Female Posts: 804 | Dimestore Saint;;: She's right. It's never going to be socially acceptable. Ever, Just like homosexuality, it's never going to happen. There are always going to be assholes out there, and they are always going to look down on what they feel is wrong. But should it be legal? I think it might as well be, along with homosexuality, it's going to happen whether or not you like it. |
| skystiles. Banned Age: - Gender: - Posts: 13229 | Fezzik:Because it is socially ingrained in us that relatives are off limits. |
| Fezzik Salute You in Your Grave Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 2748 | ^No, because it's pretty much impossible to have romantic feelings for someone who you grew up in the same house with. You couldn't pay me enough to even think about my brother that way - he ratted me out to our mom, spit in my food, not to mention I learned some rather disgusting facts about boys through him. I love my brother and all, but socially acceptable or not, ew. |
| KillJoys Bulletproof Heart  Age: - Gender: - Posts: 25453 | I do not support incest between siblings or parent and child. I can understand cousins and step siblings, But not in a full blood sibling way. I mean I've grown up with an older brother all my life we were born 18month apart and we have a close bond. But I could never see him as anything more than a brother and a best friend to me. Indeed love is love but there are all kinds of different 'love' sometimes emotions can become mixed and the close bond we share as siblings can be interpreted as something more. In addition I don't think it would ever be wholly sociably accepted, because it is not common and people tend to be scared of the unknown. And in any society I think you will find differing views over the subject and various other subjects. We are all blessed with our own minds and views and I think there will always be people against it wither they are the minority or majority. |
| skystiles. Banned Age: - Gender: - Posts: 13229 | Fezzik:But people learn gross and off-putting things about lovers and spouses all the time. Spouses and lovers sometimes grow up together, maybe not in the same household, but as "childhood sweethearts". But these people are almost never related by blood, and so the possibility for attraction is not taboo. The blood relation and the strength of the incest taboo is what stops many people from ever seeing their relative as even slightly attractive. |
| Fezzik Salute You in Your Grave Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 2748 | ^First off, people learn gross and off-putting things about spouses / girlfriends / boyfriends after they're already attracted to them. Whether they can get over those things or not depends on how strong their relationship is. The gross stuff you learn about brothers and sisters happens when you're still children (so of course before any kind of attraction). Do you have a brother? I'm guessing not, because I think if you did you'd probably understand the huge difference between being attracted to your brother and a boy you grew up around. Like, objectively, I know my brother is a nice guy, intelligent, can be pretty funny, and good to talk to. But he's still the guy I did all that backseat bickering with and who kicked me for stealing his legos. Sure, a childhood sweetheart might have seen you cry in front of your first-grade class, but your brother saw you cry when you got your first period. In healthy relationships, even ones that last for decades, there's always a certain amount of mystery between partners, and you just can't have that kind of mystery with someone you ate breakfast with every morning of your childhood. That's why pretty much the only sibling couples grew up in different households, often not knowing the other existed. |
| KillJoys Bulletproof Heart Age: - Gender: - Posts: 25453 | ^ Good point. The whole idea of a relationship is getting to know that person and creating a whole new level of understanding with them. But with siblings that you have been brought up with you pretty well know them inside out. You could ask me anything about my brother and I would tell you the answer right away, but if you asked me a question about one of my male friends I would be pretty much stumped. So therefore when people find themselves in these relationship that don't really need the process of dating, I think you would find it turns more sexual quicker, because they already know the person. But to me I could never see my brother in such light, only as a brother and best friend. |
| skystiles. Banned Age: - Gender: - Posts: 13229 | Fezzik: Yes, but even when you learn gross things about your relatives, you're pretty much stuck with them for life(or at least until you're 18 ) and you're almost obligated to have strong feelings for your relatives. So, why is it that a bond so strong, it can't be broken by an "ick factor, the way so many romantic relationships are, rarely ever turn sexual later on? Is there something biological that deters you from inbreeding? If that were true, it'd happen much much less often than it has throughout history. So, the taboo for incest must be mainly a cultural thing. That's the only explanation for why it's practiced some places, tolerated some places, scorned some places, banned others. It's funny you say I don't have brothers. Lol, I have three half brothers, two stepsisters and a half sister. Now I won't lie, I never lived with them. But I do visit them fairly often. Your constant bickering with your brother seems common, but not universal. My half-sister and youngest half brother get on very well together. They rarely fight, they've never had any of the semi-traumatic experiences with each other that you seemed to have had with your brother. Sibling rivalry is very common, but not universal. Say you have a brother and sister(or cousins, I lived with cousins for a while and am pretty close to a few of them) who did everything together, have the same interests, almost always got along, were there for each other through thick and thin, both grew up to be very attractive. What will stop these two people who never had the "taunting" relationship that many relatives had from ever considering for one second ever looking at one another that way? Even if they, hypothetically would be the perfect match for each other, what would keep that idea from ever going in their heads? Genetics? People are wired to seek out attractive partners. Your relative is attractive, what stops you? The unspoken rule that has been ingrained in you since you were old enough to take it in that incest is wrong, no matter what. |
| Fezzik Salute You in Your Grave Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 2748 | ^D'you know, maybe there is some kind of biological factor stopping us from seeing at least our siblings in a romantic light, because I just could never even consider picturing myself with my brother. And I don't think it's because of social taboos. I could never really picture myself with another girl, either, and being gay isn't taboo. And honestly, even if there wasn't anything biological going on, even if incest was made legal, I still don't see it being remotely common practice. When you grow up with someone, rivals or not, you're just not attracted to them. And, let me ask you, is it really only social taboo that keeps you from jumping your half-brothers? The thing is, people aren't just grossed out by incest because of taboo, but because of the children of incest. We know that incest can lead to birth defects, so people will always look down on incestuous couples. And it's pretty clear from this thread that most people seem to think that grievous birth defects happen after just one generation. So even though making things legal is supposed to make them more socially acceptable, common knowledge of genetics is always going to make incest gross, a kind of relationship people won't be inclined to be in. People fall in love with who they fall in love with. There are only so many people out there who are really right for a person; what are the chances one of them grew up under your roof? |
| Ignore Alien Orders Salute You in Your Grave Age: 35 Gender: Female Posts: 2026 | I don't know if it's biological but there definitely is something that keeps those feelings from turning sexual. There's a world of difference between the kind of platonic love I feel for my brothers and the rest of my family and romantic/sexual feelings, and I get the feeling that it's near impossible for anyone to overcome the one in favor of the other. |
| skystiles. Banned Age: - Gender: - Posts: 13229 | Fezzik:Biology is not my thing, so I won't even try to venture into that. There are plenty of things that keep me away from my half-siblings, what I'm saying is that the social taboo is a big part of what keeps people from ever having such a thought. It's easy to say you can just never forsee something happening, but things change. People from the Victorian Age would be just as shocked and repulsed by some of the things we consider a natural part of the culture, as we are by the idea of free and legal incest. If the "well, they love each other" or "if that's what they want to do" excuse continues to be used as it is, we as a society will find ourselves tolerating increasingly abnormal practices. Personally, I think if you're raised very close to somebody and you grow up together, the chances for forming a connection are strong. |
| Fezzik Salute You in Your Grave Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 2748 | ^Well, so what if incest becomes more socially acceptable? We have enough sense as humans not to reproduce incestuously for several generations. And I'm sorry, but I just don't buy your siblings-becoming-fair-game bit. As children, no one's looking for a mate. And when kids are older, well, there are so many things working against an inter-sibling relationship, what are the chances they'd even try anything? Most siblings have at least a few years between them, so as teenagers, they wouldn't really be on the same maturity level to be in a romantic relationship. And when they're older - who really cares? Two consenting adults can do what they want in the privacy of their own home as long as it's not hurting anyone. |
| Foxy_Roxy Thinking Happy Thoughts  Age: 32 Gender: Female Posts: 407 | I'm not sure how to word this one... When i clicked onto the thread i expected it to be all "ewww gross" kind of comments. I guess there must be some natural instinct that drives us away from "mating" with anyone closely related in our gene pool. But what i wonder is: in the prehistoric periods of time where humans were around/developing, before laws and taboo were conceivable, what happened then? If there was one dominant male (assuming that's how it worked) that fathered most of the group, there would be half-siblings and siblings around that wouldn't understand the concept of incest. But just to make the scenario a little more interesting, if no other male had taken over the role of dominance, there could potentially be a parent/child thing going on. Of course i don't really know considering i wasn't around since the beginning of time, and my idea of how cave-man tribes worked could be completely wrong, but it would be interesting to get back to basics, and find out where the whole concept of it being taboo came from. |
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