My Thoughts on Incest in Fandom

[elle_white]

 Incest is a traumatic and terrible thing in real life,and a lot of people seem to sadly ignore.

It  also takes away from healthy, well done platonic relationships. I think in society sometimes romantic and sexual relationships are held up as being the most important thing. That can be a very unhealthy message for people of all sexualities. I think it's important to show the importance of platonic relationships too. And as an asexual, it's important for me to see close non-sexual familial and (genuine, non queer baiting) friendship based relationships in the media that are depicted as valuable by the narrative. And fandom will often take a healthy familial relationship and turn into something sexual, something that is traumatic and devastating for many people in real life. I just don't want to see that. 

I have many, many romantic ships that I love that fangirl over. I'm a pretty big shipper. But I also value loving, non-sexual relationships in media. I personally don't care for incest in fandom. 

Comments

[havocthecat]

THANK YOU. Not as an asexual (because I am not), but as someone who has relatives who are survivors of incest. I've seen firsthand how damaging it is, and therefore, I just cannot get behind it in a fandom setting.

[elle_white]

I'm sorry that your relatives experienced that. I don't know first hand how damaging it is, but I feel as though it's horribly disrespectful and callous for fandom to make light of it the way they do.

[yukinoomoni]

I agree. I've never understood why people feel the need to sex up families so much (people already in a relationship obviously are exempt if canon). Incest really bugs me in fandom, but when it comes to novels, I blame Pauline Gedge's excellent writing about ancient Egypt: she makes the incest of the Egyptian royal families almost seem normal, because back then, it was.

But now, when we have way more education about it, I don't understand why people write incest just for a kink factor - unless they really and truly intend on delving into the dark and dirty underbelly of it. And really, what's the point of that? There are other ways to put your characters, borrowed as they are, through emotional conflict. Incest, to me, is a cheap thrill, inserted only when people can't find other ways to shock an audience.

Again, when it's historical and fact, it's slightly different, but still rather icky. I think incest only really works if it's written with facts in mind.

[yukinoomoni]

Additionally, I feel the need to add that you can have family members be emotional, loving, and all that without adding sex to it. It's rare to see family dramas that lack incest in fanfic for some reason (especially in ATLA bleeeeeeeeh), and I stand by what I said above. There are plenty of things to write about in the family without adding a needless sex-plot in the midst.

[elle_white]

I agree with you about incest only working with facts in mind. Fanfic writers will often write incestuous relationship as being a sexy, cute and healthy relationship. But that does not reflect the reality for incest survivors in real life. And yeah, you can depict a close, loving family relationship without adding sex.