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.
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.
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:
those who are attracted to people who look different to themselves (gene spreading);
those who are attracted to people who look like themselves (i.e. the familiar faces from their childhood - siblings);
those who are attracted to people who don’t fall into the previous 2 types.
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.
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…
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.
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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.
