Are incest fantasies common? Are they healthy and acceptable?
Several of Irving’s novels have incest (or other kinks) as subplots, not just Hotel. Check out any V. C. Andrews book. Even creepier than the fact that every one of her books seems to feature some form of incest is the knowledge that after she died her children started writing the books using her pen name. This is incorrect. Andrews never married and had no children (which is quite in parallel with both dgaicun’s and the OP’s comments, actually). Her books have been continued by a ghost-writer (it is true that this is with the authorization of Andrews’s estate). This Guardian article is relevant in terms of how the incest angle figured in her writings, and in her readers’ interest. OP: I don’t think anyone meant to impugn your google-fu by bringing things to your attention! I do find it interesting that you have trust issues so extreme you’d rather not discuss this even with a professional. In fact, I would say
I remember watching a news segment or documentary that chronicled a curious condition: biological siblings who didn’t meet until adulthood. It’s evidently very common for one or both of them to develop a sexual attraction, and that attraction amounts to an enormous hurdle in the development of their relationship. Some of the siblings profiled indeed engaged in sexual relationships, until guilt or some other overriding emotion ended the affair. So I’d say that there can indeed be a powerful, perhaps biological force at work there. Where I hail from, generations as recent as the Baby Boomers often have blood relatives who married. Some friends of mine belong to a family that is positively stuffed with cousins who married. They know more inbred jokes than you’d think existed. The urge, I’d say, is extremely common, at least as fantasy. But cultural taboos are pretty effective at keeping that fantasy under wraps.
I think that incest porn is just another example of the fact that, for a lot of people, taboo=sexy. I think that’s a good point. It’s really interesting how warped our sexuality is, is it cultural or innate in our nature? Like, there are so man taboos about sex, that the taboo itself becomes sexualized. I have my own very limited “taboos” that I consider revolting, particularly sex with Animals. If someone tells me that they want to have sex with Animals then I’d be grossed out, but I wouldn’t think less of them, I guess. Pretty much anything else doesn’t bother me though, including incest fantasies. I’m also grossed out by the idea of doing anything with my own sister, but I’m not grossed out by the idea of other siblings doing stuff together, if they want to. Frankly, I’m not quite sure why other people are bothered by it, other then cultural taboos. The inter-sibling taboo is probably innate, we’re (and most mammals and even some birds, IIRC) are not attracted to people who spend a
I can’t provide you with any statistics, but I can tell you that incest fantasies are one of the most common requests I receive as a phone sex operator. At a minimum, I would guess that 15% – 25% of my calls are incest related with the majority of those being brother-sister fantasies. Mother-son & father-daughter are also very common requests, although I don’t think I personally draw those callers as much as some other girls do. I also talk to a lot of men who, while their primary fantasies aren’t incest, do find incest intriguing and like having it added into a role-play. There are tons of sweet, wonderful people out there harboring all kinds of kinky fantasies you would never even imagine…things that would never even cross most people’s minds. Obviously I have a unique perspective on this and opinions that aren’t going to be mainstream, but I think incest fantasies are pretty dang normal. I’m not sure what to say to help you with the shame, other than to tell you I think it would p
Incest fantasies are already pretty accepted. It’s been commonly suggested that the majority of such fantasies out there–sex with children, sex with older people, bdsm, various fetishes–are all degenerate forms of the single ur-fantasy/taboo that is incest. See Freud, Oedipus, and many creation myths. Really, this stuff ways go way, way back like thousands of years to the Greeks and farther back to the dawn of civilizations. I’d suspect incest fantasies are pretty common both in pure and diluted forms. And it’s not the case that taboo==sexy but rather that what gets marked as taboo is marked as such because it is essentially appealing to some people. Incest is one of these clear cases where society has clearly put its foot down in an effort to tame and control the natural urges of the individual.
