Discussion Friday

[geraineon]

Time for Discussion Friday again!

This time, inspired by my very rapid descent into a Chinese otome game that tried to be culturally sensitive by translating "哥哥" (older brother*) into "childhood friend" in English, what are your thoughts and feelings about incest/pseudo-incest in fiction?

If you enjoy it, why do you enjoy it?

If you find it uncomfortable, is it for all incest/pseudo-incest related tropes, or are there situations where you are more likely to be okay with them and situations where it's a squick?

(Feel free to share any other related thoughts. I trust you all to be respectful to each other's preferences in fiction!)

*brother, very loosely, because it is not always someone related.

Comments

[anehan]

Like, commit to it if you're gonna do it and not suddenly reveal that one of them has been adopted!

I find that adopted thing interesting in a baffling way, because the only forbidden aspect it really removes the genetical similarity, which really only matters if the characters are going to have children. All the power dynamics etc. will stay intact, which makes it feel even more of a cop-out to me. Like it's a cop-out that doesn't even bother to actually cop out much anything.

[geraineon]

I think it just shows how much people do not understand that the problem with incest is not just genetic similarity, it's also about the dynamics.