…
:smack:
Okay, when you have these figures on top of the wedding cake I would have thought someone would have gone 
:eek:
Well, ew.
ivylass, I don’t think that was their wedding cake; I think it’s just a photo for the story.
I once knew a woman who was adopted and who had found her biological father. From conversations with her, it was pretty clear that they were in some type of sexual relationship. This article makes it sound like that’s not so uncommon, given that it mentions a support group for aoptees in a sexual relationship with a blood relative.
It’s amazing that to me that she was a psychologist, although I’ve met plenty of mental health professionals who weren’t so mentally healthy themselves.
There’s a line in that article that had me wide-eyed for a moment.
Then i realized it was referring to digital photographs.
I’m going to hell.
Author Katheryn Harrison wrote a memoir about it. She was seperated from her biological father through her entire childhood. When she met him as an adult, the two had an affair.
(And I always get her confused with Kathleen Harris-- she of the election debacle in Florida. It’s become sort of a running joke in our household. Whenever she comes on the TV news, I always ask my Hubby, “Didn’t she fuck her father?” )
Right! I couldn’t remember the details of her books, but this is the memoir of which you speak, and this novel seems fairly autobiographical.
These were adults.
The classic objection I’ve heard to incest between adults is that the seeds for the relationship may have been sown when one of the participants was not an adult. Here, in contrast, she never even met her father until she was an adult, and the sexual affair didn’t begin until she was nearly 30.
On what grounds, then, do we say “Ewww?” Is it not their right, as two consenting adults, do do as they please in the privacy of their bedroom without approbation from the rest of us?
Oh, come on, Bricker. Doesn’t the idea of a father-daughter affair give you a visceral feeling of “YECCH!”
I don’t think that the question of whether or not they had the right to do the nasty really enters into people’s “ick! ick! ick!” feelings about this relationship.
I think it’s a combination of the fact that sexual relationships between blood relations is still taboo, but there also seems to be a huge subtext of control; that McMahan used sex and money to control Linda. They were also married to other people at the time, and the relationship between the two McMahans hurt others.
Robin
Well, i guess some people say “Ewww” on the grounds that it squicks them out. Saying “Ewww,” as you well know, is not the same as arguing that they shouldn’t be allowed to do it.
I think that consenting adults should be able to do whatever the hell they want in their bedrooms, and that includes polyamory, incest, and any one of a variety of other “taboo” activities, as long as everyone really is consenting and no minors are involved. They certainly don’t need my approbation.
But i still reserve the right to saw “Ewww” if i hear about some sexual practice that is not to my taste, the same way i reserve the right to say “Ewww” to the idea of eating chicken’s feet or haggis.
(psst, MsRobyn, you’re still signed in as Airman Doors)
I think Bricker’s point is that a lot of us use arguments for gay marriage that could just as easily be applied to this relationship, which certainly makes you think.
Or I could be reading way too much into this and he might just be saying that it’s okay.
Hmm… Sounds like a great technique to teach first year law students!
That might be his point. And i agree that some arguments regarding gay sex and gay marriage could be applied to this situation.
But in all my arguing against prohibitions on homosexual activity, i don’t think i’ve ever once denied anyone the right to feel “Ewww” about gay sex. As a straight guy, i don’t find the idea of having sex with another guy at all appealing.
But, and this is what the bigots don’t seem to get, the fact that i don’t want to fuck or marry a guy doesn’t mean that i get to tell other guys that they shouldn’t fuck or marry one another. You can be as grossed out as you want by gay sex, but that doesn’t give you the right to tell others that they can’t do it. I feel the same about polygamy and even about incest (again, with the caveat that everyone involved is a consenting adult). Even the thought of sleeping with my sister grosses me out completely, but if other people want to do it, then let them.
Anyone remember the film “Butterfly”, w/ Stacy Keach and Pia Zadora?
If this is part 2, what was part 1? A previous thread?
That latter part is, I agree, a good reason to say, “Ewww.”
But I believe - and correct me if you don’t agree - that if the exact same elements (huge subtext of control; using sex and money to control a partner; relationship between two people married to others) were present in this story WITHOUT the incestual element, that most people would disintrestedly shrug upon hearing the story.
Let’s accept for the moment that the sum total of reaction in this thread is “Ewww.” That is, no one is saying, “Ewww - that should be illegal!” They are simply saying, “Ewwww - that squicks me out.”
I think it’s fair to say that if the same comments were made about homosexual sex – namely “Ewww!” there would be at least some criticism of the narrow-mindedness of the comments. It would not be universal – there are many who would say, “Say ‘Eww’ all you want; just keep away from the lawbooks and we’ll get along fine.” But I do not think that would be a universal reaction here.
I’m asking why we feel comfortable, as a group, chiming in with just how icky this relationship seems to us, when many of us would listen to similar sentiments directed at same-sex couples and respond with criticism.