Is incest THAT popular?

[RejectReality]

Right now I'm trying to figure out if things have changed, or my latest is a fluke. The conventional wisdom has always been that blood relation in the nuclear family is the gold standard, and anything outside that is going to result in diminishing returns. Everything I'd seen while looking at the numbers and comments on stories backed this up. Then my new one comes out that is Step with a clearly defined lack of familial relationship between the two characters previously. Conventional wisdom says it should have gotten a lackluster response at best, but it barely missed hitting 1k votes in the first 24 hours and should easily pass 1500 before the first week is over.

Either new/more data is needed, or this one was just lightning in a bottle. The performance elsewhere suggests the former, because it's not overperforming on either of the other two sites where it's up, and lightning in a bottle usually overperforms everywhere.

Anybody else seeing solid returns with Step/In-law and other pseudo incest in the category in the last few years?

 

[Rustyoznail]

Anybody else seeing solid returns with Step/In-law and other pseudo incest in the category in the last few years?

My first story went into I/T and was between a niece/uncle/aunt. 703 votes, 4.64, and 76 favourites. The follow up - 147/4.73/27. The final story (so far...) 233/4.6/49. The relationship was clear in the tag lines, so there's definitely an audience for such stories.

As a comparison, my latest sibling story, which I admittedly threw together to get it in the winter comp has 368/4.61/40. Pretty similar results.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Is it popular?

Looking at the Stories page, story categories are listed as follow:

Erotic Couplings. 69k
Incest/Taboo. 60.4k
BDSM. 43.3k
Loving Wives. 40.4k
Non-Consent/Reluctance. 33.5k
Group Sex. 28.6k
Gay Male. 28.1k
E&V. 27.4k
Sci-Fi and Fantasy. 25.9k
Fetish. 23k
Romance. 21.7k
Lesbian. 20.8k
Novels and Novellas. 18k
Transgender. 17.2k
Mature. 15.8
Celebrities and Fan Fiction. 15.3k
Interracial. 14.9k
Non-Human. 14.2k
Mind Control. 10.1k
First Time. 9.4k
Anal. 6.3k
Audio. 6k
Non-Erotic. 4.9k
Erotic Horror. 4.6k
Toys and Masturbation. 4.5k
Humour and Satire: 3.2k
Letters and Transcripts. 1.6k
Reviews and Essays. 1.2k
How To. 1k
Illustrated. 840
Chain Stories. 553

Incest and Taboo is second on the list. That of course is the popularity of stories in terms of submissions, not necessarily reader popularity. I don’t think it unreasonable to assume a connection however. Not my thing, in any case.

I'd like to second what you say at the bottom: those numbers can be very misleading. There are a lot of stories in the BDSM category, for example, but their reads/views number are typically a lot lower than LW, as an example. I think I/T is actually both popular with writers and readers, but I'd be careful drawing too many conclusions based just on these numbers. I haven't crunched any numbers (and have no stories in I/T, so it would be harder for me to do a deep dive in some ways), but I have a feeling the truth about exactly how popular is somewhere in the middle.

I'd also like to add that there's certain fetishes that heavily show up in I/T that don't in other places. If you search for, say, the "breeding" tag, I/T has a ton of hits compared to most of the other categories. So that's a thing to consider as well: if you did a tag cloud, I imagine there are certain fetishes that are highly correlated with the "major" fetishes represented by the category system, and that could be driving stuff as well.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

NTH - no arguments with any of that. I did toss up some caveats myself. What I offered was merely one indicator. Cheers.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'd like to second what you say at the bottom: those numbers can be very misleading. There are a lot of stories in the BDSM category, for example, but their reads/views number are typically a lot lower than LW, as an example. I think I/T is actually both popular with writers and readers, but I'd be careful drawing too many conclusions based just on these numbers. I haven't crunched any numbers (and have no stories in I/T, so it would be harder for me to do a deep dive in some ways), but I have a feeling the truth about exactly how popular is somewhere in the middle.

I'd also like to add that there's certain fetishes that heavily show up in I/T that don't in other places. If you search for, say, the "breeding" tag, I/T has a ton of hits compared to most of the other categories. So that's a thing to consider as well: if you did a tag cloud, I imagine there are certain fetishes that are highly correlated with the "major" fetishes represented by the category system, and that could be driving stuff as well.

Some people have crunched the numbers. 8Letters did an analysis 3 years ago of the number of views received by stories in different categories. It's not exhaustive, but by Lit standards it's probably as authoritative as you're going to get. Incest/Taboo gets more views than any other, by a substantial margin. Loving Wives comes in second place. Sometimes Illustrated stories do very well.

There's no relationship at all between the number of stories published in a category and the number of views those stories receive on average. Erotic Couplings has more stories than any other, but its results in terms of views are extremely mixed, and on average far, far below Incest and Loving Wives. Illustrated receives very few contributions, but the few stories that are published sometimes receive extremely high numbers of views -- especially when they are illustrated incest or loving wives-type stories. Readers like incest with pictures.

 

[Britva415]

If you're looking for porn to watch, you invariably HAVE to ignore the incest scenarios lately; it's almost all of them lol.

I genuinely wonder how much the popularity of incest porn in 2022 is due to the universality of underage people viewing porn. Kids clicking on what seems to match their available partner pool.

 

[Britva415]

I genuinely wonder how much the popularity of incest porn in 2022 is due to the universality of underage people viewing porn. Kids clicking on what seems to match their available partner pool.

Also why the stepbro's are always 40 years old,

 

[TheRedChamber]

Also why the stepbro's are always 40 years old,

There was a wonderful comment I read somewhere - can't remember if it was here or on another forum. It went:

I figure being a male porn star doesn't pay much - I'm always seeing these videos of guys who are thirty years old and still living with their step-moms.

 

[Defluer]

Sadly, and disgustingly, it seems to be very popular. YECH!!!

There is a saying that goes, "Don't yuck anybody's yum." As long as we're in the rules of adulthood, we're okay. You can say, "Not for me." (Not everything is for everybody) but keep your judgment to yourself. I don't like BDSM, it's not for me, but I don't drop judgments on them. In my head or in forum posts. They write their stories about adults. I write my stories about adults. They do their thing in real life and most of us "Disgusting YECHs" just fantasize.

 

[Pink5Frills]

I wanna start this off by saying that I fully understand that erotica is fiction and not hurting anyone in its depiction of fantasy. I have no beef with incest writers.

There's no allure to the premise of incest for me personally. Yet on occasion in my search for works that indulge in whatever highly specific kink I'm looking for at the time, I find myself biting the bullet and reading a story from the incest category. Not because I want to but because the tag I was looking under didn't have many results to choose from. I'm not into the incest thing, but I'll overlook it in stories where the fact that the characters are related isn't played up as the main attraction.

This got me thinking about how popular the incest genre is. I'm sure a lot of its popularity is genuine. But I can't help but speculate if it's popularity is in part because of other people like me who are willing to ignore the fact that it's incest and read it anyway. Is this a thing?

[Note: I'm not here to start fights I'm just curious. Scientifically intrigued if you will.]

We all have a taste for different foods. I do read stories in different categories, just to have an idea of what I would write. I myself have a fantasy for being stark naked in the woods with a man in his sixties. I have just finished college.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I would also say that the popularity of I/T category comes partly from the fact that it can contain the kinks of any other category. You can have lesbian, gay, dom/sub, cheating, mature, exibitionist stories that are just additionally spiced by the fact that sex happens between members of the family. I don't doubt there is a large number of readers who browse the I/T stories which contain their kinks, yet those stories ended up in I/T category because no matter how strong the other kinks are, if its between family members, you have to put it there.
Some other categories that are not defined by any sexual kink, but by interest, get far less popularity though, so I guess incest does have its own strong base of readers. Yet, even in such categories, like Sci-fi/Fantasy for example, you can see how certain kinks strongly drive the popularity of some stories and series. Even in Sci-fi/Fantasy you can see significant domination of those same kinks that are dominantly popular overall.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Several of Literotica's major competitors disallow incest-themed stories, or at least require authors to play the "step-relatives, nudge nudge wink wink" game. (Blame PayPal.)

As one of the more prominent sites not to have such a restriction, Literotica is naturally going to draw a lot of readers with that particular kink. So "is incest that popular?" and "is incest that popular here?" might not be the same question.

 

[JGittes]

It's early enough (6 am in the UK) that I'm not yet drunk, and this thread has run its course to the point no one will read my post, so I'm jumping in.

The allure (or revulsion) of incest is found in answers to two questions; when do we initially form our erotic consciousness, and what primary social construct we're in when that happens? Young and family are my answers which automatically eliminate age-appropriate specifics here.

On the alluring side are the myriad opportunities for accidentally seeing something you weren't supposed to see. I think of a time returning home for a visit after my first year at college, both parents worked, and I was alone during the day. The swamp cooler was installed in my parent's bedroom window, and it sprang a leak that I had to fix. I bumbled around, trying to keep the water from spraying all over everything, and I knocked over their nightstands and one of the dressers. Imagine my shock to discover a Playboy magazine on my father's nightstand or delicate lingerie in one of my mother's dresser drawers. That's not to mention the vibrator in my mother's nightstand drawer or the condoms in my father's.

Another time that same visit, I was supposed to fix the bathroom door latch and hadn't gotten to it. One morning I walked down the hall from my bedroom, heading for the kitchen and breakfast, and passed the bathroom. The warm steam from the running shower had pulled the door open a couple of inches. Glancing in the mirror beside the door as I passed, I saw the hazy shape of my mother taking her morning shower before work. We eventually had a pleasant conversation when she arrived in the kitchen for her morning meal.

Nothing ever came of these incidents. My father was a private pilot, and he and my mother would fly to local airports for lunch; the hundred-dollar burger, they called it. Two weeks later, on such a flight from Van Nuys to Santa Barbara, their Cessna 172 was involved in an unfortunate accident with a flock of seagulls and crashed just offshore Rincon Beach. But I wondered, and after I started writing erotic stories, these incidents became grist for the mill.

The revulsion comes from the reality of actual incest, which in my talking with three women who experienced it far too young, is complex and devastating. Nothing good comes from it except the possibility that they became stronger for the effort after working through it.

 

[R. Richard]

My published incest stories are usually among my best sellers. If you pay for it, it will come.
Besides, it's a game that the whole family can play.

 

[lc69hunter]

Incest is not in my kink group. However, I read one this morning (a newly published story) about a Dad and a 40 year old married daughter, both with spouses having actual physical sexual issues, who reconnected physically and emotionally on a family visit. The story could easily have fit into erotic couplings, mature, or even LW if you wanted to take it there. It was a beautifully written love story between two adults who just happened to be Father and Daughter

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Sadly, and disgustingly, it seems to be very popular. YECH!!!

overuse of the exclamation mark there - yech!

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

The taboo of the thing is why it's popular. Especially on sites like here. The more something shouldn't be done, the more some people want to experience it vicariously.

 

[sweetdreamssss]

I dont like incest but I can see the appeal. Its about pushing taboos and boundaries.

Lots of western readers complain that most of the Indian stories are about rich housewives get seduced by dirty low class scoundrels. But the truth is that these things are taboo given our social structure so reading it as fiction is so taboo

 

[ChuckWolf]

Also why the stepbro's are always 40 years old,

On a related note, always weird how porn actresses are often cast as the local milf/cougar opposite the male actor who is often of the same age range.

 

[ChuckWolf]

The story idea section is often flooded with bizarre incest-themed stories that are so off the wall, that the incest part is the least weird and/or disturbing aspect of the story.

 

[Andrew1968]

I am a big fan of incest, particularly mother/son incest. I first developed an interest in it when I was in my mid-twenties, many years ago, and I just never lost my interest in it. The people involved must be consenting adults. The fantasy of it tends to turn me on more than the reality of it, but I am attracted to most of my female family members.

It’s a bit difficult to determine why mother/son incest is so good. To me it’s like a sort of private libido-driven religion between a mother who is divine and a son who longs to worship her. It’s a religion of complete pleasure where she who is adored and the one who adores her have disappeared and shut themselves away from everyone else so they can practice their religion. In my fantasy world a mother is enveloping, smothering, endlessly protective, and dare I say controlling and a son is constantly horny and wants to prove himself a man over and over again. Usually, the father is elsewhere. He has vanished. It really is an oedipal sort of fantasy.

I like the idea of a mother orchestrating things so it can happen. I like the idea of an ardent young man finally having what he has wanted for so long. It’s the ultimate sort of coming-of-age story as far as I’m concerned. It’s fueled by this obsessive urgent love which takes place in a cocoon. It takes place behind closed doors late at night, every night. It’s really all about dammed up/repressed libido bursting through/exploding through over and over until an exhausted, shaky, sweaty son collapses on top of his wet mom in the dark. And it’s about her looking up at the dark ceiling, while a smile spreads across her perspiring face because she loves her son and because she’s never going to let him go.

As you can see, I’m rather absorbed by what must come across as a bit of a creepy dark fantasy…

 

[Pink5Frills]

I am a big fan of incest, particularly mother/son incest. I first developed an interest in it when I was in my mid-twenties, many years ago, and I just never lost my interest in it. The people involved must be consenting adults. The fantasy of it tends to turn me on more than the reality of it, but I am attracted to most of my female family members.

It’s a bit difficult to determine why mother/son incest is so good. To me it’s like a sort of private libido-driven religion between a mother who is divine and a son who longs to worship her. It’s a religion of complete pleasure where she who is adored and the one who adores her have disappeared and shut themselves away from everyone else so they can practice their religion. In my fantasy world a mother is enveloping, smothering, endlessly protective, and dare I say controlling and a son is constantly horny and wants to prove himself a man over and over again. Usually, the father is elsewhere. He has vanished. It really is an oedipal sort of fantasy.

I like the idea of a mother orchestrating things so it can happen. I like the idea of an ardent young man finally having what he has wanted for so long. It’s the ultimate sort of coming-of-age story as far as I’m concerned. It’s fueled by this obsessive urgent love which takes place in a cocoon. It takes place behind closed doors late at night, every night. It’s really all about dammed up/repressed libido bursting through/exploding through over and over until an exhausted, shaky, sweaty son collapses on top of his wet mom in the dark. And it’s about her looking up at the dark ceiling, while a smile spreads across her perspiring face because she loves her son and because she’s never going to let him go.

As you can see, I’m rather absorbed by what must come across as a bit of a creepy dark fantasy…

I read all sorts of these stories, as there is no harm in writing and no harm in reading them. They can't hang you for what you are thinking.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

That was a lot more articulate than 99% of the incest stories here.

 

[Duleigh]

This got me thinking about how popular the incest genre is. I'm sure a lot of its popularity is genuine. But I can't help but speculate if it's popularity is in part because of other people like me who are willing to ignore the fact that it's incest and read it anyway. Is this a thing?

I don't know, I haven't written any, but my Muse demands that my Valentine's story includes it. Read my Valentine's story and let me know.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I am a big fan of incest, particularly mother/son incest. I first developed an interest in it when I was in my mid-twenties, many years ago, and I just never lost my interest in it. The people involved must be consenting adults. The fantasy of it tends to turn me on more than the reality of it, but I am attracted to most of my female family members.

It’s a bit difficult to determine why mother/son incest is so good. To me it’s like a sort of private libido-driven religion between a mother who is divine and a son who longs to worship her. It’s a religion of complete pleasure where she who is adored and the one who adores her have disappeared and shut themselves away from everyone else so they can practice their religion. In my fantasy world a mother is enveloping, smothering, endlessly protective, and dare I say controlling and a son is constantly horny and wants to prove himself a man over and over again. Usually, the father is elsewhere. He has vanished. It really is an oedipal sort of fantasy.

I like the idea of a mother orchestrating things so it can happen. I like the idea of an ardent young man finally having what he has wanted for so long. It’s the ultimate sort of coming-of-age story as far as I’m concerned. It’s fueled by this obsessive urgent love which takes place in a cocoon. It takes place behind closed doors late at night, every night. It’s really all about dammed up/repressed libido bursting through/exploding through over and over until an exhausted, shaky, sweaty son collapses on top of his wet mom in the dark. And it’s about her looking up at the dark ceiling, while a smile spreads across her perspiring face because she loves her son and because she’s never going to let him go.

As you can see, I’m rather absorbed by what must come across as a bit of a creepy dark fantasy…

This is the right place for such fantasies. We all have our own fantasies, some of them vanilla, some darker, yet expressing them here, in forum or through stories is what makes this place special.