Hm, fascinating idea. I wonder if I should do one of these post myself, but I fear it could go very much into tl,dr territory. (and speaking of which, this post turned into more of a manifesto than I originally planned, so if you think it's too OT or TMI, feel free to delete, okay?)
2) I suspect people’s theories about incest being the new slash in the sense that people need taboos for their pairing to break and same-sex relationships don’t really cut it for them anymore are probably true for some of the writers, but I’m always hesitant to sweepingly ascribe motives to lots of people I don’t know, not even in the sense of knowing their writing.
That's a very valid point, but the impression I got - not from all writers who do incest stories, but from a very healthy portion - is exactly that; it's fascinating because it's forbidden, and that makes it kind of hot - and I think that always made it kind of hot, because incest in fiction is hardly a new phenomenon. I can't even say that I necessarily have a problem with that, but what gets me is the idea that incest is exactly like slash (starting at such simple things as newsletters sorting Matt/Mohinder with Nathan/Peter), and that, consequently, any negative reaction to incest is basically the same as homophobia. I find the relation of these two issues extremely problematic, since I would usually suspect objections against incest to go a little deeper then either discomfort with same sex relations or worries about canon-accountability. Granted, I am judging from my own personal history here - I have experience with incest, and yeah, it kinda makes me react somewhat sensitively to certain topics or specifically pairings. Now I'm also in my thirties and have a bit of therapy under my belt, so I know what I can deal with and what I can't, and I can also distinguish between people's kinks and fantasies vs their thoughts about real life incidents, but I know that a lot of the stuff that's out there would have hit me badly even at twenty, and the unwillingness in greater fandom to acknowledge the possibility that someone could feel uncomfortable with incest for valid reasons and respect that without feeling the need to blindly defend themselves or to stop writing what they want to write quite frankly distresses me - which is why I usually avoid talking about the topic in the first place.
no subject
(and speaking of which, this post turned into more of a manifesto than I originally planned, so if you think it's too OT or TMI, feel free to delete, okay?)
2) I suspect people’s theories about incest being the new slash in the sense that people need taboos for their pairing to break and same-sex relationships don’t really cut it for them anymore are probably true for some of the writers, but I’m always hesitant to sweepingly ascribe motives to lots of people I don’t know, not even in the sense of knowing their writing.
That's a very valid point, but the impression I got - not from all writers who do incest stories, but from a very healthy portion - is exactly that; it's fascinating because it's forbidden, and that makes it kind of hot - and I think that always made it kind of hot, because incest in fiction is hardly a new phenomenon. I can't even say that I necessarily have a problem with that, but what gets me is the idea that incest is exactly like slash (starting at such simple things as newsletters sorting Matt/Mohinder with Nathan/Peter), and that, consequently, any negative reaction to incest is basically the same as homophobia. I find the relation of these two issues extremely problematic, since I would usually suspect objections against incest to go a little deeper then either discomfort with same sex relations or worries about canon-accountability. Granted, I am judging from my own personal history here - I have experience with incest, and yeah, it kinda makes me react somewhat sensitively to certain topics or specifically pairings. Now I'm also in my thirties and have a bit of therapy under my belt, so I know what I can deal with and what I can't, and I can also distinguish between people's kinks and fantasies vs their thoughts about real life incidents, but I know that a lot of the stuff that's out there would have hit me badly even at twenty, and the unwillingness in greater fandom to acknowledge the possibility that someone could feel uncomfortable with incest for valid reasons and respect that without feeling the need to blindly defend themselves or to stop writing what they want to write quite frankly distresses me - which is why I usually avoid talking about the topic in the first place.