Dissonance
Member
This topic has come up in a couple of other threads but we might as well get somethin' goin' about it on it's own. It's the only controversial topic we haven't touched on yet I think.
Incest is probably the most uniformly adopted taboo across the world's cultures. That's not to say that incest is uniformly banned by everyone everywhere, but in the history of our planet, more cultures across time have banned incest than homosexuality, drug use, etc.
Our current culture is radically anti-incest. Not only are we taught to not engage in incest and see it as extremely abhorrent, we are also taught not to even consider the topic logically. There are stories of people who wanted to discuss the topic from a logical perspective, and were completely shot down by surrounding people who thought that any position other than complete disgust (even if it was a bias-neutral one) was insulting. If you want to see what I mean, guess how many "HOW CAN YOU EVEN TALK ABOUT THIS" posts I get. :3 Incest in our popular culture is a reasonably common topic. A significant amount of it is created for erotic purposes, but there are some pieces that wish to seriously examine themes of incest and follow the characters involved as they struggle with their emotions. It's generally censored and considered a taboo subject despite which approach the work takes, however.
Long before we knew the specifics of genetics, and the disorders that can arise from children created from incestuous relationships, it was still considered a taboo. In many cultures, the incest taboo made no sense by itself, but was rather a link in a long chain of laws banning sexual behaviour in order to keep people's familial structure in a formation that was easily controllable by the powers of the time.
(Example - banning incest does nothing to the general populace, but if you ban along with it homosexual behaviour, sexual relations outside of marriage, methods of birth control available at the time, and encouraging young marriages, the predominantly Christian rulers of early Europe were able to manipulate their subjects into having large families. Even discounting the children that didn't survive past infancy, they still had at least 10 children that survived into adulthood. Having a nation full of adults with job responsibilities and 10 children weighing them down discouraged movement, non-menial labour, and generated lots of taxes and subservient peasants for the rulers to use. Long story short, the Christian values that today's Christians hold so dear are actually the remains of an ancient system used to keep people in check. No surprise here.)
However, now we know about the genetic problems that can arise from a child born of incest. And I feel that obviously, that shouldn't be allowed unless we can find a way to correct the damage. It only harms the child if we knowingly allow them to be born with genetic regression.
But sexual contact between family members that doesn't result in children? There's no logical reason as to why it shouldn't be allowed. Even if you think of your brother or sister IRL and say "no way would I ever do it", that's not a sufficient enough reason to impose those arbitrary morals on another couple who is so inclined. As long as the people involved are consenting, and they have no intention to produce a child, there's no logical problem with it.
But what do you think? :3
Incest is probably the most uniformly adopted taboo across the world's cultures. That's not to say that incest is uniformly banned by everyone everywhere, but in the history of our planet, more cultures across time have banned incest than homosexuality, drug use, etc.
Our current culture is radically anti-incest. Not only are we taught to not engage in incest and see it as extremely abhorrent, we are also taught not to even consider the topic logically. There are stories of people who wanted to discuss the topic from a logical perspective, and were completely shot down by surrounding people who thought that any position other than complete disgust (even if it was a bias-neutral one) was insulting. If you want to see what I mean, guess how many "HOW CAN YOU EVEN TALK ABOUT THIS" posts I get. :3 Incest in our popular culture is a reasonably common topic. A significant amount of it is created for erotic purposes, but there are some pieces that wish to seriously examine themes of incest and follow the characters involved as they struggle with their emotions. It's generally censored and considered a taboo subject despite which approach the work takes, however.
Long before we knew the specifics of genetics, and the disorders that can arise from children created from incestuous relationships, it was still considered a taboo. In many cultures, the incest taboo made no sense by itself, but was rather a link in a long chain of laws banning sexual behaviour in order to keep people's familial structure in a formation that was easily controllable by the powers of the time.
(Example - banning incest does nothing to the general populace, but if you ban along with it homosexual behaviour, sexual relations outside of marriage, methods of birth control available at the time, and encouraging young marriages, the predominantly Christian rulers of early Europe were able to manipulate their subjects into having large families. Even discounting the children that didn't survive past infancy, they still had at least 10 children that survived into adulthood. Having a nation full of adults with job responsibilities and 10 children weighing them down discouraged movement, non-menial labour, and generated lots of taxes and subservient peasants for the rulers to use. Long story short, the Christian values that today's Christians hold so dear are actually the remains of an ancient system used to keep people in check. No surprise here.)
However, now we know about the genetic problems that can arise from a child born of incest. And I feel that obviously, that shouldn't be allowed unless we can find a way to correct the damage. It only harms the child if we knowingly allow them to be born with genetic regression.
But sexual contact between family members that doesn't result in children? There's no logical reason as to why it shouldn't be allowed. Even if you think of your brother or sister IRL and say "no way would I ever do it", that's not a sufficient enough reason to impose those arbitrary morals on another couple who is so inclined. As long as the people involved are consenting, and they have no intention to produce a child, there's no logical problem with it.
But what do you think? :3
