What's your take on the various types of incest?

[strongnsensual]

For me, I don't have a sister, so it's kind of abstract. But strangely, still hot.
M/S - it can work. In the abstract.
F/D - no way. Consent is critical, essential, choose whichever precise term you like - and I just don't see it as fully possible in that scenario. Which makes it abhorrent to me.

 

[Jorunn]

I had a mental block against writing an I/T story, but decided to read a few. What I found were some stories of two people who love each other, but with an added element of tension or excitement or fear or danger. A challenge was how to overcome any initial reluctance. So I tried a ‘Cowgurl’ story where a freshman rides a mechanical bull (face up and strapped down) and his sister is chosen at random to ride the bull. Both are reluctant until the bull operator has other ideas.

A series of other stories spun off this one, but I have tried to focus on the genuine love between brother and sister, adding many comedy elements as they try to hide their affairs. My Christmas story last year continues the theme and includes the mother of the freshman’s girlfriend getting involved with some mistaken identity.

Genuine love and affection between the partners, humor while trying to keep it hidden, and plenty of lighthearted comedy make for a decent story. I doubt I would like anything forced or dominant.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

I use a simple flowchart.

If normalised, can it harm others?
=> No => write it!
=> Yes => does the story normalise it?
=> No => write it!
=> Yes => do not write it

That means incest is a yes on the first, and a depends on the second. In general, I'll not write incest. I do not wish to contribute to normalising that phenomenon, which in turn can harm their offspring and the community around it.

Besides, I'm of the opinion that many of those stories lean on the premise as crutches so hard. If it needs crutches, it doesn't move as a good story. My stories are evolving more and more into stories with erotica, instead of erotica with a storyline.

 

[calmlikeabomb]

As long as everything is consensual and above age, I'm fine reading/writing M/S. I have only (co) written one D/D story, and trying my hand at another (although it seems harder than M/S, either because I've read and roleplayer more M/S, and/or because I just can't imagine the appeal).

The type of incest that I'm most interested in, however, is between in-laws. For instance, here in India, there is an "acceptable" taboo around the elder brother's wife, wife's younger sister, or husband's elder brother. There are plenty of raunchy folk/village songs about such relationships, and in fact, the wife's younger sister is often jokingly referred to has Half Wife.

Now the idea of incest in real life squicks me out, whether it is between direct relatives or not, but fantasy is fantasy. The people in my stories and fantasies do not exist, and I make no effort to make them realistic in any way. They are not people, they are concepts, tools to tell/enjoy a raunchy story or fantasy.

Disclaimer: My top rated story currently is a mom initiated M/S scene. Obviously nothing like real life in any way, and quite vanilla when it comes to I/T stuff here.

 

[IWroteThis]

Food for thought: With how many surprise half-siblings affordable DNA testing is revealing, any sex scene might actually be incest. Likewise, any incest scene might actually not be…

Lighten up, that was just a bit of bad humor.

 

[SimonDoom]

I use a simple flowchart.

If normalised, can it harm others?
=> No => write it!
=> Yes => does the story normalise it?
=> No => write it!
=> Yes => do not write it

That means incest is a yes on the first, and a depends on the second. In general, I'll not write incest. I do not wish to contribute to normalising that phenomenon, which in turn can harm their offspring and the community around it.

Besides, I'm of the opinion that many of those stories lean on the premise as crutches so hard. If it needs crutches, it doesn't move as a good story. My stories are evolving more and more into stories with erotica, instead of erotica with a storyline.

What does "normalize" mean?

I see this word used a lot, but I'm not convinced people are thinking through what it means.

If I write a story about a sexual encounter between a mom and a son and the story ends happily with no adverse consequences, am I "normalizing" consensual adult mother-son incest?

I would argue, vehemently, "No." I'm just writing a fantasy story that in no way endorses any behavior in the real world. And I believe the vast majority of my readers see it the same way.

 

[alohadave]

Food for thought: With how many surprise half-siblings affordable DNA testing is revealing, any sex scene might actually be incest. Likewise, any incest scene might actually not be…

Lighten up, that was just a bit of bad humor.

If you go back far enough, all humans are related.

 

[Zootonius]

I look at incest stories as a type of voyeurism. It's the fascination of watching others banging their mother or son or sister, etc.

F/D stories are often creepy. Especially when the dad treats her like an adolescent despite her actual age, calling her 'Kitten' for example. About the only way to make it work is for the daughter to be sexually confident, and experienced, with her being the aggressor. And for dad to be the reluctant one, resisting, and finally succumbing to temptation.

 

[iwatchus]

What does "normalize" mean?

I see this word used a lot, but I'm not convinced people are thinking through what it means.

If I write a story about a sexual encounter between a mom and a son and the story ends happily with no adverse consequences, am I "normalizing" consensual adult mother-son incest?

I would argue, vehemently, "No." I'm just writing a fantasy story that in no way endorses any behavior in the real world. And I believe the vast majority of my readers see it the same way.

TBH, I think you have your head in the sand for this one.

Reading a story, even a fantasy one, does normalize behaviors in people's brains. It's just the way we are wired. The question should be do you really care about it?

I have a personal aversion to all forms of incest (despite having just written one). I know that I'm not supposed to be kink-shaming, but that is just being honest for me. On the other hand, do I care if there is truly loving incest going on in the real world? No, I don't. Do I think the world is going to go to hell if that taboo was eliminated (the practice was normalized)? Somewhat. I don't trust relationships where power imbalances exist, as they almost always do in parent/offspring. With no inhibitions, I worry in reality about boundaries being overrun, especially with minor children. (Obviously not what anyone can be publishing here fortunately.)

 

[SimonDoom]

TBH, I think you have your head in the sand for this one.

Reading a story, even a fantasy one, does normalize behaviors in people's brains. It's just the way we are wired. The question should be do you really care about it?

Maybe I do, but cite your authority. It carries no weight when people claim that people are wired a certain way. Wiring is complicated.

I think what you are claiming is generally NOT true. It may be true for some, but not the majority. I believe the majority come to a place like this and read fantasy stories about all kinds of things and that those fantasy stories have no impact on what they do in the real world. I know this from my personal experience and I believe this based on reading I've done.

I could be wrong. Perhaps the effect is greater than I think it is. But based on what I've seen and experienced, I have no reason to believe that. I think this is a narrative that is, generally speaking, not true.

 

[IWroteThis]

Reading a story, even a fantasy one, does normalize behaviors in people's brains. It's just the way we are wired.

I think you are simplifying it a bit. There is a big difference between the normalizing factor of what you read in novels found on the New York Times bestsellers list and stories you find on an adult website where nobody uses their real names. How normal you view the source impacts how much you perceive the included content as normal.

 

[iwatchus]

but cite your authority

I don't have time to do the work now, but hopefully sometime next semester or after I'm fully retired I will. The biggest sets of studies I know about have looked at sexual practices (both in literature and in movies) and violence. The big wave of the sexual influences was done in the 60's. I don't think it's considered interesting research now because it is considered a settled point. The big studies I know in the 60's about violence was trying to answer the apparent paradox of violence in US culture vs Japanese, given the difference between American Westerns and Samurai movies. They realized that people blur gore and violence too much. Consequenceless violence, as American culture tends to include, does increase violence in people who consume it. Japanese violence tends to be very consequenceful and diminishes violence. Not really surprising in hindsight, but was a notable finding at the time. This had to be rediscovered with early violent video games, especially in the wake of Columbine.

Throwing out the obviously politically motivated research (on both sides), which are pretty easy to spot, the constant finding was that there is a significant effect (across a large population) whose magnitude is a product of the amount of such material being consumed. Small amounts have a surprisingly large impact, but the impact flattens out until some critical mass, when it becomes profound,

 

[iwatchus]

I think you are simplifying it a bit. There is a big difference between the normalizing factor of what you read in novels found on the New York Times bestsellers list and stories you find on an adult website where nobody uses their real names. How normal you view the source impacts how much you perceive the included content as normal.

Actually, that is not the findings of the research. If you immerse yourself in the media (film, literature, games and in some cases music), it has made an impact on you. Your brain does not distinguish fantasy from reality well in how the synaptic connections are formed.

 

[IWroteThis]

Actually, that is not the findings of the research. If you immerse yourself in the media (film, literature, games and in some cases music), it has made an impact on you. Your brain does not distinguish fantasy from reality well in how the synaptic connections are formed.

That's interesting, but I'm not sure how they could measure that difference without introducing significant observation and/or survey bias. Further, I find it unlikely that they actually tried, but I don't really care enough to research the research. Finally, "made an impact" is not the same thing as normalized.

 

[iwatchus]

That's interesting, but I'm not sure how they could measure that difference without introducing significant observation and/or survey bias. Further, I find it unlikely that they actually tried, but I don't really care enough to research the research. Finally, "made an impact" is not the same thing as normalized.

They absolutely tried. Whether they succeeded or not is a fair question. I do think peer review was more rigorous then (although not infallible).

Made an impact in this case meant moving it towards being normalized. Normalized is always a fuzzy line. Normalized for whom? Nothing is perceived as normal by everyone. Even something as obviously true as pineapple is good on pizza.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

What does "normalize" mean?

I see this word used a lot, but I'm not convinced people are thinking through what it means.

If I write a story about a sexual encounter between a mom and a son and the story ends happily with no adverse consequences, am I "normalizing" consensual adult mother-son incest?

I would argue, vehemently, "No." I'm just writing a fantasy story that in no way endorses any behavior in the real world. And I believe the vast majority of my readers see it the same way.

Normalize is an ambiguous term. Even so, I hope it is clear that the goal is to prevent an environment where someone thinks incest is okay.

If you write a story with positive connotations, like a consequence free mother-son sexual relationship, then you are normalising it. It is positive, and consequence free. No more is needed for someone to eventually believe it.

Do I think that suddenly the whole world is going to be fucking their nearest family members? No. Not at all. Even with the porn industry at full tilt and the massive amount of stories on Lit it doesn't create a world where this is normal.

The problem isn't that the whole world does it though. It is that it happens at all. On the bell curve incest is on the edge. Only outliers do it. Having so much media giving attention to it at all already moves the line on the bell curve, increasing the amount of people practicing incest.

You asked another person on their authority. Mine is first higher education in psychology, which is where I live the highest form of practical education, and then I did the University one as well, to achieve a Master's degree in the Applied Cognitive Psychology.

There's enough "pop culture" shaping of peoples perspective that it hardly needs research. With the rise of social media it is abundantly clear that even the most insane gibberish gets an audience. Even if we look at the birth of the internet we see people being able to connect with more extreme thoughts, which would normally be quashed by the local environment.

As an extreme example, incels. People who would normally not start to murder others. The "positive" fictional and real stories shared do not bring most of them to actually commit (mass) murder. It still happens much more often than if they didn't have a platform.

The sheer availability of positive incest will make more people act upon it. I am not against people harming themselves, but harming others that that do not get a choice in the matter, as well as burdening society at large, is not okay.