I don’t even know where to put this thread because I don’t know whether I am asking a question, starting debate or what. I’m just astonished at what I have read in Salon about a phenomenon called “genetic sexual attraction” that happens between closely related people—like fathers-daughters brothers-sisters—when they have been estranged from each other until adulthood.
Apparently when they finally meet its not uncommon for them to become uncontrollably hot for each other.
Some possible questions—Does anyone have knowledge of this? Friends/acquaintances/relatives? What happens in these situations? The woman quoted in the Salon article said she did research and concluded that it was safe for her to conceive her genetic father’s child.
It has been discussed before on this board but only very in passing when discussing other aspects of incest or relationships, rather than in depth.
(Aren’t these the people who caused the news froofraw that led to the thread about the New Jersey consenting adult incest law, or rather lack thereof? In a way, they have created a situation that actually harms “innocent” cases of GSA, by riling up public opinion demand for a crackdown.)
The Wiki article says that it’s not really common at all. My understanding is that, usually, the similarities will produce an initial attraction, but that it will fail the kiss test due to them also smelling similar, a built in mechanism to avoid incest. I would just guess that this second system fails for a small amount of people. We never know about it in normal situations due to the Westmark effect.
That is one of the compounding problems with the case. They were both adults when they started the relationship, so it’s not like he was a child molester. In fact, they lived quite openly in the incestuous relationship and she told a lot of people that her husband was also her father. An interesting thing is that their relationship didn’t become sexual until after they found out they were related; they had known each other for some time. Almost everyone involved in prosecuting the case would have let them be except that they had two children, both with severe birth defects. What they really want them to do is stop having children. What a pathetic mess.