TWITTER: Incest Boundaries in Book Four: Ichi-no-Tani 2017
- Feb. 14, 2017, 9:05 p.m.
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- Public
The title is the closest thing to Click Bait that I’ve ever done and I only slightly apologize. But I had a thought that I couldn’t exactly discuss with people and I wanted to investigate cultural reactions.
Cousins getting married is nothing new to this world. Royalty and even American Presidents have engaged in such behavior. Our parents are related… we’re more distantly related… we marry.
Of course… acceptance for that kind of thing has significantly declined. Meanwhile, other elements have been introduced. It is these elements that I wish to explore.
(1) Step. This could happen in any number of ways (and has). Two people meet, date, and while they are dating… their parents meet and get married. Thus… you are now dating/sleeping with your Step Sister. Acceptable? Is it acceptable because of timing? Thus if two divorced parents met each other, got married, and then their non-blood-related children (step siblings) started a romantic relationship… acceptable? What about ex-step? If your parent divorced your step-parent… would that ex-step-parent be acceptable romantic territory? Would the now-ex-step-sibling?
(2) Adopted. This is less iffy but still worth discussing. No, I’m never going to be okay with the Woody Allen bullshit. But lets shift our understanding of what an adopted person is; and realize that people can be adopted at almost any age. So… 16 year old boy meets a 16 year old girl; they hit it off; boy’s parents find out she’s a homeless orphan and adopt her. Is the pair’s romantic relationship acceptable? Is it acceptable because of timing? Thus if the two didn’t meet until after the boy’s parents brought the girl into the house; does that make it less acceptable?
(3) Family of Family. This one can get very convoluted but it is pretty much a potentially still valid vestige of royal family pairings. I don’t know how to explain this succinctly and I am sorry… so I’ll share a story to “clear things up” and acknowledge that it may muddle things more.
Steven has a brother Charlie. Steven marries Tamara. Charlie marries Susan. Tamara has no siblings. Susan has a little brother named Ben. Ben marries a woman named Lisa. Steven and Tamara have two children; a boy named Aaron and a girl named Daria. Charlie and Susan have two children; both girls Erica and Fiona. Ben and Lisa have a single daughter named Grace.
Everyone knows Aaron can’t marry Daria… that is sibling level incest. In today’s society, Aaron can’t marry Erica or Fiona… that is first cousin level incest. BUT what about Aaron and Grace? Technically… Grace isn’t family to Aaron. But in a way… she is. “It is the cousin of my cousin.” Would this be considered acceptable in today’s world? Especially when you consider the language that would be used in such an event. “I’m marrying my cousin’s cousin.” Or “My cousins are getting married today.” This, more than all the others, sparks my curiosity. Because… simply by blood level issues; it seems like it would be acceptable. BUT I could still see how society would be very against it.
stargazing ⋅ February 15, 2017
For me, in the case of adoption or step siblings, it depends on whether they lived together as siblings prior to getting together. That feels like incest. My head is killing me, so I can't make heads or tales about #3. :)
absolut lilith ⋅ February 15, 2017
I'm fine with non-genetic relationships, as long as like stargazing mentioned above, they didn't actually grow up together. Like teenagers whose parents meet and get married is perfectly OK. Two kids whose parents got married when they were like 2 is kinda iffy... that seems more like incest from a psychological perspective. But genetically, it would still be acceptable.
For me, incest is more taboo because of the birth defects and increased risk of hidden genetic mutations and anomalies that occur when the genomes share too much in common.
hot-lips ⋅ February 16, 2017
This is an interesting topic. I got a bit lost with all the variations of who's who and how they are related. Personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable being with someone genetically related to me, or even related by law. Even a cousin's cousin is still a relation. But each to their own. I think as long as you haven't grown up together and you're only related by law, then it's more acceptable. Obviously as others have mentioned, the closer genetic relation you are, the more risk of mutations with a baby etc and that's a bit like playing with fire.
Rhapsody in Purple ⋅ February 17, 2017
Have you ever watched the show The Fosters? There is an element of this in that. two siblings get fostered into a family. The sister is attracted to one of the boys in the family that fosters her. The family end up adopting her but at one point it looked like the adoption wouldn't happen because the birth father didn't want to sign the papers and in that time, the two of them hooked up, but then the adoption does go through and they are now officially siblings. I'm really behind on the show, so i'm not sure how all that turns out, but its obviously very complicated.
All the experiences are TV related, so one from Australian TV: on Neighbours, there was a couple dating but it turned out their parents had dated when they were young and it turns out they actually had a secret child together that they didn't know about. (The mother was told her baby had died but was really given up for adoption). So the secret child comes back and both her half-siblings are dating each other and end up having a child together too. But its definitely weird to be like 'my sister had a child with my brother'.
I also find it weird on The Flash that Barry and Iris are together since they pretty much grew up together. He was fairly young when Joe took him in so surely they are pretty much siblings.
Park Row Fallout Rhapsody in Purple ⋅ February 17, 2017
Not familiar with the shows but definitely shows that there is interesting and meaty discussions to be had over this stuff.
Deleted user ⋅ February 17, 2017
I think if you are related ; avoid it :-)