Thread: incest - the last taboo?

Isn't babykilling and cannibalism enough?

firstly well put HD!!
it is still very damaging, as it stops the normal development of relationships etc and it is always about power anyway. as a young woman i lived in a community where it was widespread, although i wasnt personally affected it was horrible. the young girls especially were very vulnerable, suicide was not uncommon, drug abuse etc, i cant imagine what it is like to grow up that way.

if it is taboo, it is for a very good reason.

Originally Posted by rcoreyus

For "victimless" sexual activities it seems unique.

(Here I'm considering sibling incest - that doesn't have the power issues with parent / child incest).

Don't get me wrong - I'm NOT thinking of doing it - it disturbs me as well. I just find it interesting that our society still has this strong taboo.

Both my sister and I were raped by our brother. It derailed our lives. more then 40 years later it is still painful despite years of therapy. He was a popular high school athlete and years later and my sister told me that girls his age seemed interested in him (she was in the same school with him) but our home life was very (very, very, very) repressive. It was simply easier to rape us rather then run afoul of our father. My sister disclosed what happened to her school councilor. Nothing happened. The school told my mom (who was a great mom) and dad (who was a really shitty father) that my sister had too many "home responsibilities" and these should "reduced." Mom who could read between the lines confronted my brother with my sister and he became so angry that, according to my sister, he jumped passed our mom and did something that badly hurt her. The injury was so bad that mom had to deal with my sister, effectively ending the confrontation and any effort to make my brother even consider his actions.

Years later at a family gathering he did a pantomime of my sister and her teenage sexuality that had our brothers in stitches but was immensely painful for us. She held her dignity and flew home early but she cried with me on the way to the airport. It is not just that he was cruel in particularly mean way. After the rape my sister said she shut down about boys and sexuality in general. The pantomime was about her sexuality before the rape, the very thing the rape took away. It was just another way to control and humiliate her.

I am not criticizing you and I think that you are trying to ask an open and honest question. But all of the people I've met who have had similar experiences have immensely painful problems in their lives. I realize that these people tend to be people very troubled by their experiences and they represent a particular group within a larger group. But it seems important to recognize that this is closer to the reality for most of us then what I occasionally hear presented as the possibility of an equal sexual relationship between siblings. An equal and open sexual relationship is just not likely to happen between siblings.

Please do not get the wrong impression, I am glad you asked the question. It is a question that gets kicked around a lot and maybe I am overly sensitive to hearing incest, any kind, described as a victimless activity. I chose the story to illustrate what happened to us because it shows the ongoing nature of abuse, and that the event of abuse can also be a sort of foreplay for humiliations to come.

You might not even see this as I joined the thread late. But if you do I hope you understand that I honestly believe that you asked what appeared to be an innocent question. This is a long answer with painful contents to that question. But those painful contents should not be seen as a criticism of you for asking the question, only a context for you to consider the nature of the question in.

Thanks,
gabrial

PS I do not want to cast a wet blanket on any discussion. This is my first and possibly only post. I find the info here great but felt compelled to respond.