# Did you ever have sex with a sibling? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 24, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920 "2003-11-24T02:10:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/81 "2003-11-29T21:24:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by nyctea scandiaca \* > \*\*But it has made me think, marrying your first cousin was very common not 100 years ago. Anytime you ever read a novel written more than 100 years ago, or see a Jane Austen movie or anything from that era, there’s tons of first cousin marriages going on. And it’s also very common amongst the royals of Europe. What was it OK a couple of hundred years ago, but not now? \*\* I’m looking for a cite about it, because I’m sure I saw it better written somewhere, but what I read was that it was a combination of two factors: (a) the discovery of Mendelian genetics, and thus the concern about degeneracy through inbreeding (and folks back c. 1900 were _extremely_ hung up about “degeneracy”, in part because many of them actually believed a whole race could “deevolve”); and (b) a trend in _SOCIAL_ attitude, associated with the increasedly urban-industrial society, towards how marrying your cousins was something done by yokels in the boonies, or in the villages of the “old country” (thus, the West Virginia/Arkansas jokes). Exogamy was equated with modernity, progress, sophistication, indoor plumbing; endogamy with poverty, ignorance, stagnation, pit outhouses. Of course, this is conflating cause and effect – the cousins were marrying each other _because_ they lived in a small, isolated village with little chance for meeting different people, their union is not the reason the village is like that!! And this social censure may have also been partly influenced by a desire to discourage closed blood-based groupings that could interfere with the primary loyalty of the new “modern” citizen, which was to be to the employer (or the State). These combined to counter a traditional precept in many cultures that though you could not marry within your _immediate_ family, you WERE expected to marry within “in your ancestor’s House”, i.e. in the tribe, and thus cousins were technically OK. ---
**Author:** ![NailBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NailBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NailBunny)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/82 "2003-11-30T00:28:53Z")
When I was growing up, my mom had two close friends that were first cousins that got married, with their church’s blessing and everything! I remember her explaining it to me because she didn’t want me to be upset if I found out. It didn’t particularly bother me then, and I guess it doesn’t now. One of those things that, having no interest in it myself, I just gotta say: if there’s no children or animals involved & it’s consensual, whatever floats yer boat, pal. I did, however, have huge crushes on _both_ my (now ex-) stepbrothers growing up. Nothing ever came of it, and I’m quite pleased about that. They were both pretty skeevy. ---
**Author:** ![Kriss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kriss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kriss)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/83 "2003-11-30T01:08:16Z")
When there was Adam and Eve didnt their childern have sex with each other and thats how we were all created according to the bible? ---
**Author:** ![boofy\_bloke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@boofy\_bloke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofy_bloke)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/84 "2003-11-30T06:05:41Z")
A local gay magazine did an article about twins and yes, some of them rooted each other. I had a crush on my first cousin once - not even the best-looking one - probably because he lived so far away and was a stranger because we’d only met 3 or 4 times. Wouldn’t make a difference to me: incest rules are there only to prevent in-breeding (and yet I hate red hair). Meanwhile, I remember hearing about a study that showed that people fall into 3 categories: 1. those who are attracted to people who look different to themselves (gene spreading); 2. those who are attracted to people who look like themselves (i.e. the familiar faces from their childhood - siblings); 3. those who are attracted to people who don’t fall into the previous 2 types. Don’t quote me on any of that. ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/85 "2003-11-30T07:32:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kriss \* > \*\*When there was Adam and Eve didnt their childern have sex with each other and thats how we were all created according to the bible? \*\* I am not an expert on the Bible, but I believe it mentions that the sons of Adam and Eve married women from “other lands.” ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/86 "2003-11-30T07:54:28Z")
What is the big deal with cousins? From the Book of Common Prayer: _A Man may not marry his:_ mother daughter adopted daughter father’s mother mother’s mother son’s daughter daughter’s daughter sister wife’s mother wife’s daughter father’s wife son’s wife father’s father’s wife mother’s father’s wife wife’s father’s mother wife’s mother’s mother wife’s daughter’s daughter wife’s son’s daughter son’s son’s wife daughter’s son’s wife father’s sister mother’s sister brother’s daughter sister’s daughter _A Woman may not marry with her_: father son adopted son father’s father mother’s father son’s son daughter’s son brother husband’s father husband’s son mother’s husband daughter’s husband father’s mother’s husband mother’s mother’s husband husband’s father’s father husband’s mother’s father husband’s son’s son husband’s daughter’s son son’s daughter’s husband daughter’s daughter’s husband father’s brother mother’s brother brother’s son sister’s son ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/87 "2003-11-30T08:52:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lisa-go-Blind \* > \*\*I am not an expert on the Bible, but I believe it mentions that the sons of Adam and Eve married women from “other lands.” \*\* Whoa, where did THEY come from, then? Olympus? The Gray Havens? Was “Lilith” doing some parthenogenetic reproduction when no one was lookin’? ---
**Author:** ![Kriss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kriss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kriss)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/88 "2003-11-30T20:22:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ranchoth \* > \*\*Whoa, where did THEY come from, then? Olympus? The Gray Havens? Was “Lilith” doing some parthenogenetic reproduction when no one was lookin’? \*\* Yeah I thought Adam and Eve were the first humans on earth and thats how we came into existance. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/89 "2003-11-30T20:45:58Z")
Yes maybe they were the first but maybe god created other ones afterwards in other places. Sod it who cares it’s a load of bull anyway! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/90 "2003-11-30T21:55:23Z")
I have a somewhat distant cousin who I think is pretty hot. Never really had a crush on her per se, and no nothing came of it. Don’t have any siblings. I once fantasized about having one and doing _that_ with her, but if I really had a sister I probably wouldn’t. Not really related, but my friends tell me I would probably be a pretty hot girl if the chromosomes came out that way, as I am Russian, Czech and Norwegian in ethnic heritage. Anyway, there’s a possibility that if I had a sister she might be pretty hot. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/91 "2003-11-30T22:22:25Z")
Yeah, I’d be pretty hot too if my chromosomes arrived in order. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/92 "2003-12-01T01:14:59Z")
> [@](#): > > A local gay magazine did an article about twins and yes, some of them rooted each other. EEEWWW!!! Twins? YUCK! I once saw on Springer this mother and daughter-mind you, the girl was adopted, so they weren’t blood related. But they were making out! I mean, even if they aren’t related by blood, that’s still your freaking MOTHER!!! UGH!!! _incest is best incest is best put your brother to the test…_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_Samaritan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bad\_Samaritan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_Samaritan)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/93 "2003-12-01T01:38:08Z")
Back in the days of my misspent youth, I dated a beautiful young woman that admitted to me that she had banged her first cousin “a few times”. This didn’t bother me at first but then I met him once at one of her family get-togethers and the blatant flirting and obvious attraction between them was a little shocking to say the least. OK… I was jealous. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/94 "2003-12-01T02:00:53Z")
Back on page one, **BwanaBob** mentioned a British TV drama about sibling incest … I have a suspicion (which I’m trying to confirm through online sources) that this was a one-off play called _Close Relations_, starring Clare Holman and the late James Hazeldine. ISTR it was accompanied by a documentary which suggested that incest wasn’t unheard of in cases (like the one in the TV play) where siblings meet up after having been separated for many years … all this is still just based on my failing memory, though, so don’t take it as gospel … ---
**Author:** ![boofy\_bloke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@boofy\_bloke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofy_bloke)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/95 "2003-12-01T02:31:49Z")
There’s also “Dreaming of Joseph Lees” Somerset, 1958. Eva enters adulthood with good humor, keeping house for her absent-minded father, letting her younger sister Janie in on the secrets of growing up, working at a furniture factory, and dreaming of Joseph Lees, her second cousin who’s off in Africa and Italy as a geologist, but has lost a leg in an accident. She’s also considering the advances of a local farmer, Harry Flite, ebullient and head over heels for Eva. She agrees to live with him and seems happy, then at a family wedding, Joseph appears, she asks him to dance, and her fantasy begins to clash with Harry’s obsession. > **[Dreaming of Joseph Lees (1999) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144178/)** > > Dreaming of Joseph Lees: Directed by Eric Styles. With Rupert Graves, Samantha Morton, Nicholas Woodeson, Lee Ross. A young woman in rural 1950s England becomes involved in a scandalous love triangle that will inevitably leave someone behind to... ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/96 "2003-12-01T02:55:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by boofy\_bloke \* > \*\*Meanwhile, I remember hearing about a study that showed that people fall into 3 categories: > > 1. those who are attracted to people who look different to themselves (gene spreading); > 2. those who are attracted to people who look like themselves (i.e. the familiar faces from their childhood - siblings); > 3. those who are attracted to people who don’t fall into the previous 2 types.\*\* Hrm. We seem to have found the most worthless findings _ever_ yielded by a study. (no offense intended toward you, **boofy\_bloke**.) Well, while I’m here, I do have a very pretty cousin, and I met her for the first time when I was 20. I appreciate that she’s pretty, but nothing more, really, if only because I figure I have enough problems. ---
**Author:** ![shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shrew)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/97 "2003-12-01T03:12:23Z")
Hm, this is a tricky question. I absolutely adore my brother. I think he is smart, gorgeous, funny, and sensitive. If I could find a man exactly like him but who was not related to me, I would marry him. But would I get naky with my bro? Uh, no. ---
**Author:** ![Lucki\_Chaarms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lucki\_Chaarms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucki_Chaarms)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/98 "2003-12-01T03:34:26Z")
When I was about 13 I had a “kissing cousins” relationship. No intercourse or anything, though. I think this is really a pretty common way for people to experiment at an age when most of us don’t have many options. LC ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/99 "2003-12-01T05:53:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Griffin \* > **Yes maybe they were the first but maybe god created other ones afterwards in other places.** But if not all humans are decended from Adam and Eve, why would we still have “Original Sin,” then? Did THEY all do something to piss god off, too? > [@](#): > > \*\*Sod it who cares it’s a load of bull anyway! 😃 \*\* Hmmm…good point.:smack: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920/100 "2003-12-03T21:07:56Z")
Worldwide, about 20% of all married couples are first cousins. A straight read of Genesis 4 doesn’t reveal anything about where Cain’s wife came from, but she may have been from somewhere else… I don’t know. F\_X [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-have-sex-with-a-sibling/214920.md?page=6)