Incest in popular culture

Incest is a somewhat popular topic in English erotic fiction; there are entire collections and websites devoted solely to this genre, with an entire genre of pornographic pulp fiction known as "incest novels". This is probably because, as with many other fetishes, the taboo nature of the act adds to the titillation. With the advent of the Internet, there is even more of this type of fiction available.

Besides this, incest is sometimes mentioned or described in mainstream, non-erotic fiction. Connotations can be negative, very rarely positive, or neutral. For example, in Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude there are several cases of sex between more or less close relatives, the last of which occurs between a nephew and his aunt, resulting in the birth of a child who is born with a pig's tail and precedes the destruction of the whole town of Macondo by a tropical cyclone. Other works of literature show consequences not so grave, such as the V.C. Andrews novel Flowers in the Attic and its subsequent sequels, in which brother and sister uphold a loving relationship; Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, in which fraternal twins share a cathartic sexual experience; and several of Robert A. Heinlein's later stories.

Incest is a major element of the Sophocles play Oedipus the King, based on the story from Greek mythology, in which the title character unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother. This act came to great prominence in the 20th century with Freud's analysis of the Oedipus complex as lying beneath the psychology of all men. Its female counterpart is called the Electra complex.

Incest also appears in John Milton's "Paradise Lost" in which Satan commits incest with his daughter Sin and their child, Death, after terrible childbirth, proceeds to rape his mother.

Vladimir Nabokov's novel Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle deals very heavily with the incestuous relationships in the intricate family tree of the main character Van Veen. There are explicit moments of sexual relations primarily between Van and his sister Ada, as well as between Ada and her younger sister Lucette. Nabokov does not necessarily deal with any complexities or consequences, social or otherwise, which may be inherent to incestuous relationships--outside of the strictly practical concerns of having to hide the taboo relationships from others. Incest in Ada seems mainly to be a sexual manifestation of the characters' intellectual incestuousness, and operates on a similar plane as do other instances of "sexual transgression" in Nabokov's novels of this period, such as pedophilia in Lolita and homosexuality in Pale Fire.

Incest plays an influential role in George R. R. Martin's bestselling fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. In the series, incest is illegal and seen as abnormal; however, children born from incestuous parents (brother and sister, father and daughter) are healthy and no different from children born from non-incestuous parents, although one of them is extremely sadistic. Two of the main characters, a queen and her brother, practice incest in secret, which leads to a major war across the land when it is discovered that their illegitimate children (not the King's) have inherited the throne. Their public denials of the incest and their secret love for each other causes a great deal of tension and conflict in the series.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Silmarillion, the characters Túrin and Nienor unwittingly enter into an incestuous marriage when they meet for the first time while Nienor is suffering from amnesia.

In two books of Philippa Gregory's Wideacre Trilogy, the central female characters Beatrice and Julia have intercourse with their brothers Harry and Richard, respectively.

Charlotte Vale Allen's book Daddy's Girl, she narrates how the main character was viewed by her father as his lover not his daughter.

In Richard Wagner's Ring, the hero Siegfried is the son of the incestuous relationship between Siegmund and Sieglinde.

Thomas Mann's The Holy Sinner explores the spiritual consequences of unintentional incest. His short story "The Blood of the Walsungs" also depicts brother-sister incest, drawing explicitly on Wagner's Siegmund and Sieglinde.

It also played a minor role in Stephanie Lauren's 12th Cynster novel "The Truth About Love", where the villains in the story were the Fritham siblings, Jordan and Eleanor, who often trysted in Hellabore Hall's Garden of Night. They murdered the heroine's mother Miribelle, purely because she heard and witnessed them in the Garden of Night (which was directly under the balcony of the Hall), and thus tried to prevent her daughter Jacqueline from ever consorting with the Fritham siblings again, creating a huge problem for Jordan, who had plotted to gain Hellabore Hall through a marriage with Jacqueline.

Doris Lessing's short story, Each Other, in the anthology, "A Man and Two Women" (Granada 1965) features the incestuous relationship between Fred and Freda, adult brother and sister and each in another relationship.

A depiction of an incestuous world in science fiction can be found in Theodore Sturgeon's story "If All Men Were Brothers Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?".

Incest has also been a recurring subject in Japanese anime, dating all the way back to one of the medium's earliest pornographic titles, Cream Lemon. Certain anime programs, such as Koi Kaze, are serious, even sympathetic, studies of the characters as they struggle with their emotions and societal taboos. Others, such as Angel Sanctuary, use incest mainly for shock value and titillation. Incest is also a common theme in hentai manga and anime; there, its treatment ranges from the lighthearted to the gruesome. A similar theme sometimes explored in both media is pseudo-incest, which is most often depicted as romantic/sexual relationships between stepsiblings.

Adult/child incest in fiction

Cameron Miller is aged 14 in Counterfeit Son, written by Elaine Marie Alphin. He has been sexually abused all his life by his father, a serial killer of more than 20 young boys. In Jim Grimsley's Dream Boy, the adolescent Nathan is sexually abused by his drunken father and it is clear that his mother knows, but does nothing. In The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things by JT LeRoy, 5-year-old Jeremiah is physically and sexually abused by his prostitute mother.

Mya's grandfather in Small Pleasures: Mya's Story, by Darnishia Boldentakes, takes a special interest in her. By the age of ten, he is so tempted by her development that he builds her a cherished doll house, lures her to the basement, then rapes her. In My Bedroom, by Donna Hill describes a girl raped by her father.

Anne Rice's Mayfair trilogy deals with a family of witches who are heavily inbred. One character fathers children with his sister, daughter, and granddaughter.

Jessie is the central character in Stephen King's Gerald's Game. She was sexually abused by her father when she was aged ten.

In Ian McEwan's novel The Cement Garden, the tension between the protagonist and his older sister culminate into incest. Also, Donna Tartt's The Secret History contains incest between the twins Charles and Camilla, which is not revealed until the final chapters of the book.

Adult/child incest in non-fiction

Strong at the Heart: How it feels to heal from sexual abuse, by Carolyn Lehman, includes a number of true stories including one about Tino who is only 5 when he is abused by his grandmother. Another tells of Tammy and her younger sister who are abused by their stepfather over a number of years. They tell each other what's been going on when they are aged 15 and 14. A third is the story of Akaya, who is abused by her father from age 2 to 7, then again from the age of 12. Casanova tries to seduce his own 10-year-old daughter in Casanova's Women: The Great Seducer and the Women He Loved by Judith Summers. Where There Is Evil by Sandra Brown tells the story of the disappearance of 12-year-old Moira Anderson in 1957 and the involvement of Alex Gartshore, the author's father and a convicted pedophile, as a member of a pedophile ring.

Daddy, written and directed by Niki de Saint Phalle tells how Saint Plalle was sexually abused by her father. Don't Tell Mummy: A True Story of the Ultimate Betrayal tells the story of Toni Maguire who was abused by her father from the age of 6 to 14, when he makes her pregnant. Please, Daddy, No: A Boy Betrayed by Stuart Howarth describes his abuse at the hands of his father and the despair that drove him to kill him years later. In A Girl Called Karen: A True Story of Sex Abuse and Resilience by Karen McConnell, Eileen Brand, the girl is abused by both her father and stepfather

Fiction self-cest

In some fictional stories (usually fan fiction), another term called self-cest is used, when, through either cloning (John Varley's The Phantom of Kansas), time travel (such as in the novel "The Man Who Folded Himself" by David Gerrold and the short story "—All You Zombies—" by Robert A. Heinlein), or some other odd means, a character has sexual intercourse with him or her self, making them incestuous.

In the Metabarons epic, Aghora, the androgynous Metabaron is actually a woman with her male twin brother's brain transplanted. When adult, zie extracted cells from the male brain, fertilized them in her, and thus gave birth to the Nameless Metabaron.

In the novel The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, the protagonist, Henry DeTamble, experiments sexually with a self from several months in the future at the age of fifteen. DeTamble goes so far as to say that he believes all people would do the same, given the option.

This is, of course, impossible in real life given current scientific knowledge.

In film

Murmur of the Heart (French: Le souffle au cœur) (1971) by Louis Malle that tells a coming of age story about a 15-year-old boy who is growing up in bourgeois surroundings in Dijon, France. The various adventures of the boy lead to an incestuous relationship with his mother.

Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974) features father-daughter incest.

The American horror films Wrong Turn, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and The Hills Have Eyes (1977 and 2006) feature villains who are the product of inbreeding.

In the musical The Rocky Horror Show and the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show the characters of Riff Raff (a butler) and Magenta (a maid) are revealed to be brother and sister and there are hints that these siblings have a sexual relationship, but this is never made clear. In the unproduced sequel "Revenge of the Old Queen", it is implied that Frank-N-Furter had been incestuously involved with his own mother, the "Old Queen" of the planet Transsexual (in the galaxy of Transylvania); she later dies in the throes of seducing Frank's son, her own grandson.

In the Star Wars films (1977-1983), Luke Skywalker is attracted to his sister Leia Organa, and she seems to reciprocate, as the two kiss romantically in one episode, before learning they are siblings in a later film. They then realize that their initial strong feelings towards each other were not sexual but rather reflective of their strong (intensified by the force) brother-sister bond. Writer/creator George Lucas has indicated that this is intended as an example of Genetic Sexual Attraction.

In Bernardo Bertolucci's film La Luna (aka Luna) (1979), Jill Clayburgh plays an opera singer on tour in Italy whose desperate attempts to wean the youth off the drug result in an incestuous relationship.

Incest is also a main plot device in the movie Caligula (1979)

In The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), John (Rob Lowe) feels intense sexual desire for his sister, Franny (Jodie Foster). Franny succumbs and, after spending an entire day in bed together, they move on as strictly brother and sister.

In Back to the Future (1985), Marty's mother Lorraine falls in love with him instead of Marty's father.

The 1991 Channel 4 film called Close My Eyes, was about a brother and sister, played by Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves, who embark on a passionate but incestuous love affair. In this film there are few sexual scenes between the siblings.

Guy Maddin's film Careful (1992) features one character, Johann, lusting after his mother and another character, Klara's attraction to her father (who lusts after his other daughter)[1]

The Australian Film Bad Boy Bubby (1993) depicts an incestuous relationship between a mother and her adult son.

In Not in My Family, 1993, also known as Shattering the Silence, and directed by Linda Otto a mother recalls the sexual abuse from her father.

A rarely seen case of consensual incest between adult siblings is shown in the English film [2] Sister my Sister (1994), which is based on a true story.

The 1994 film Spanking the Monkey depicts a situation in which mother-son incest takes place, leading to the suicide attempt of the latter.

In the film Clueless (1995), the main character Cher (Alicia Silverstone) falls in love with her step-brother, Josh (Paul Rudd).

At the end of the 1996 film Lone Star, Sheriff Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) and his high school sweetheart and current lover Pilar Cruz (Elizabeth Pena) both learn they have the same father, Pilar's mother having been the Sheriff's father's mistress.

The American film The House of Yes (1997), based on the play by Wendy McLeod, is about the ongoing consensual incestuous relationship of a pair of twins.

The American film The Cider House Rules (1999) depicts a father-daughter incestuous relationship that results in the daughter's pregnancy.

The American film Cruel Intentions (1999), and to a lesser extent, the film it is based on, Dangerous Liaisons (1988), features a tumultuous step-sibling relationship.

In Ridley Scott's film, Gladiator (2000 film), the new Caesar Commodus is in love with his sister Lucilla, though she does not return his affections in that way.

In the film, The Royal Tenenbaums, (2001), Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson) has a lifelong secret love for his adopted sister, Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow), who eventually returns his affections.

Park Chan-Wook's Oldboy (2003) features an instance of brother-sister incest as well as father-daughter incest.

Harry and Max (2003), features an incestuous relationship between two brothers.

In the 2003 film The Dreamers fraternal twins Théo (Louis Garrel) and Isabelle (Eva Green) have an incestuous relationship.

The 2004 motion picture Eurotrip has an explicit scene in which inebriated siblings Jamie and Jenny French kiss. This is then used as a plot device to reveal the (now sober) siblings' revulsion at their behavior.

The French film, La Petite Lili (2005), shows a fictional case of incipient consensual mother-son incest between independent adults.

The British short film Memories of a Sick Mind (2006) [3] implies a consensual incestuous relationship between the mentally unstable Adam and his older brother Bumble.

In the 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan features Borat Sagdiyev as an incestuous journalist, also featuring his whole village in Kazakhstan living under an incestuous way of life.

In television

The FOX television drama "House" featured 2 young patients who are also married that share the same symptoms. Later it is revealed that they are siblings and they suffer from a genetic disease inherited from their father.

The British soap opera Brookside ran a storyline featuring consensual incestuous sex between the two sibling characters Nat and Georgia in the 1990s.

The television series Lost contains a semi-incestuous scene in which step-siblings Shannon and Boone sleep together.

The hit television series Prison Break (2005) shows the character T-Bag as a spawn of his father and aunt.

In the finale episode of season 3 from FX Network's television drama Nip/Tuck, the characters of Quentin Costa and Kit McGraw are exposed as incestuous lovers, of likewise incestuous parents. This discovery comes soon after Quentin is unmasked as the serial killer The Carver, the main antagonist of season 3, along with his accomplice, Kit.

In the episode "Roswell that Ends Well" of the animated series Futurama, the crew is sent back in time to the 1940s while watching a Supernova occur. Without any guidance systems available at that time, their ship crash lands at Roswell, where Fry meets his grandfather, Enos. Fry is then warned by the Professor not to interfere with anything in case he disrupts his own timeline. But in an attempt to prevent his grandfather's death, he locks him in a cabin out in the middle of nowhere - which is unbeknownst to him a nuclear test zone (resulting in his grandfather's death). Soon afterwards he quickly becomes entangled in his young grandmother's emotional despair and ends up sleeping with her. The Professor, after discovering the two, then informs Fry that he is his own grandfather.

The Fox sitcom Arrested Development constantly plays with the idea of incest. The most ongoing is George-Micheal's (played by Micheal Cera) crush on Maeby, his cousin (Alia Shawkat). Micheal Bluth (Jason Bateman) sings the song Afternoon Delight with his niece Maeby at the company Christmas party, not realizing the induendo of the song. Lindsay Bluth (Portia de Rossi) reveals to Micheal, her brother, that she has always had a small attraction towards him when it is stipulated that she was adopted. Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter) and her son, Buster (Tony Hale) live together, even though Buster is in his mid-30s, and they have a comedic codependant relationship that only suggests incest. Lucille also has a long affair with her husband's brother, Oscar. Lindsay steals her daughter Maeby's love interest, Steve Holt (Justin Grant Wade), by pretending to be Maeby's sister. ETC.

The British comedy Green Wing features a mother and son, Joanna and Guy, sleeping together, albeit unknowingly as Guy was abandoned by Joanna as a baby.

The British soap Eastenders featured a storyline between adopted brother and sister Sharon and Dennis Watts in an incestuous relationship.

Incest in popular music

Prince, in his groundbreakingly explicit album Dirty Mind, contains "Sister", a 1:31 ode to incest.

Perhaps the first incest line in pop music was "The End" by Los Angeles psychedelic rock band The Doors, in which singer Jim Morrison sings: "Father/Yes son?/I want to kill you/Mother, I want to... fuck you". Though this is evidently an Oedipal reference rather than a true incestual reference.

British musician Kate Bush's song "The Kick Inside" from her 1978 album of the same name depicts an incestuous relationship, pregnancy & suicide involving a brother and sister.

The song "Fa La Fa Lee" by rock band Sparks contains the line: "Fa la fa lee /she ain't heavy, she's a brother to me/ What I need, she can't be / Nature, nurture, who's to say?/ But still fa la, fa lee / Anything between us is a felony"

Joking about incest in popular music has become a norm. Punk Rock band Blink 182 are notorious for being lighthearted about it in songs like, "The Grandpa Song", and "The Country Song", as well they joke about it frequently at live shows.

Giant Drag (American rock band) have a song called YFLMD - which stands for "You Fuck Like My Dad".

Alternative rock band Pixies utilize themes of incest in several songs including "The Holiday Song". The German metal band Rammstein touches on incest in "Spiel mit mir", ("Play with me", in English), featuring a brother-brother homosexual relationship. In Spiel mit mir, an older brother seemingly forces his younger brother to have sexual intercourse with him so he will be able to sleep. Rammstein has made other songs which feature incest, including two others songs named Laichzeit and Tier.

Alternative rock band 3 Doors Down also deals with father-daughter incest in the song "Sarah Yellin'", and the subsequent murder of the father by his daughter.

Nirvana released an album entitled Incesticide on December 15 1992.

Steely Dan's "Cousin Dupree" from their 2000 album, Two Against Nature is about a travelling singer who lusts after his cousin. Sample lines include "When I see my little cousin Janine walk in / All I could say was ow-ow-ouch / ... How about a kiss for your cousin Dupree."

American singer Sophie B. Hawkins sings about brother-sister incest in her song "Don't Stop Swaying" from the 1992 album Tongues and Tails. The spoken phrase at the end of the song is explicit: "Hansel and Gretel are holding hands deep in the forest. They are lost. This is their own story. The two have fallen in love, and so, after a long quietness amidst the creatures of the night, they begin to kiss."

There are many examples where incestuous themes are interpreted into lyrics that are undouptedly dealing with "normal sex". For instance, the term "mama" and "my old lady" are sometimes misinterpreted as representing "mother".

Arena rock band Queen was criticized for their song "Tie Your Mother Down", even though the lyrics obviously refer to the "singer's" girlfriend's mother who wants to prevent her daughter from seeing the "singer".

Orange County, Florida rockers Attila and the Huns released a song called "Happy Times" which allegedly deals with sibling incest, although the band's bassist denies the claim. The Genesis song "Mama" has arguable innuendos of mother-son incest, although the term "mama" may simply be intended as slang for "woman". Another song depicting incest is 'Me and My Old Lady' by The Offspring, in which sexual acts are described between the singer and his mother (there is some dispute to this, as the term "old lady" is often used by men to describe their wives or girlfriends, not mothers).

On his 2003 album, Poodle Hat, Weird Al Yankovic included a parody of Avril Lavigne's song, "Complicated", with Weird Al's version entitled, "A Complicated Song". The song was sung in the first-person, and one of the verses sung was about going to dinner to propose to his girlfriend, only to learn that she was his cousin. The verse was sung as, "How was I supposed to know we were both related? / Believe me, if I knew she was my cousin we never would have dated".

In their 2003 "metal opera" Days of Rising Doom, the band Aina tells through music a story that features an unknowing incestuous relationship between the Ainae princess Oriana and her half-brother Syrius. The evil warlord Sorvahr abducts the queen Oria from his brother Talon, the king of the land of Aina, and rapes her until she bears son named Syrius. Oriana, whom Oria had conceived with Talon before Sorvahr kidnapped her, encounters Syrius many years later, who was being groomed to be the leader of Sorvahr's Krakhon army, falls in love with him, and has sexual intercourse with him. In a later battle between the Ainae and Krakhon, Syrius calls a truce between his forces and the Ainae when he spots Oriana on the Ainae battle line. Furious, Sorvahr kills Syrius with magic and appears in the sky, telling Oriana how Syrius was her brother. Oriana then destroys Sorvahr, and with the help of the Ainae army, defeats the Krakhon, rescues her mother, and restores peace to the realm of Aina.

U.S. southern rocker Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers based their song "The Deeper In", from their Decoration Day album, on the real-life consenual incestuous relationship between Allen and Patricia Muth. The Muths are a brother and sister from Wisconsin, although Hood mistakenly implies Michigan in the song. In interviews he has claimed this is due to incorrectly recalling an article from Esquire (magazine), in which he read about the couple. Patricia was adopted at birth and didn't meet Allen until she was 18 and he 33, however both were aware of their relationship to each other. They went on to produce four children, one of which was disabled, this lead to their arrest and subsequent imprisonment in 1997. Allen was sentenced to 8 years and Patricia 5 years, to be served in maximum-security prisons, 25 miles apart.

The so-called "Mamasan Trilogy" by Seattle rockers Pearl Jam tells the story of a man's incestuous relationship with his mother and the events which unfold from it. The trilogy starts with Alive (song) which has been revealed by singer Eddie Vedder to be part autobiographical and part fiction. When Eddie was a teenager, his mother revealed to him that the man he thought was his father was actually his step-father, and that his biological father was dead. It is the first piece to a trilogy of songs: "Alive", "Once" and "Footsteps." "Alive" tells a story of incest, which leads to the murderous killing spree described in "Once", and eventually looking back from a prison cell in "Footsteps".

The song "Cry Little Sister" by Carfax Abbey is also apparently a song about brother-sister incest.

The song "My Promiscuous Daughter" By West Chester, Pennsylvania band CKY starts off with lyrics "I caught my daughter giving head to my brother" suggesting a sexual relationship between a man's daughter and her uncle.

Eyehategod have a song called "Sister Fucker"

Suck My Left One by Bikini Kill was about father daughter incest.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut feautres a song called "Uncle Fucka", which 90% of the song features accusations of incest by Terrance and Phillip.

Adult/child incest in songs

A thirteen-year-old boy is molested by his mother because he looks like his deceased father in the song Alive by Pearl Jam, from the album Ten. In Janie's Got a Gun by Aerosmith, from the album Pump, a sexually abused little girl gets her revenge on her sexually abusive father and kills him. In Bad Cliché by Cosy Sheridan, from the album Grand Design, a girl is sexually abused by her uncle from the age of nine to twelve.

Breaking Silence by Janis Ian, from Breaking Silence is about fathers sexually abusing their daughters. In Cherokee Louise by Joni Mitchell, from the album Night Ride Home, a young girl hides from her sexually abusive stepfather. In Crack in the Mirror by Betty Elders, from the album Peaceful Existence; also covered by Joan Baez on Gone From Danger, a girl is sexually abused from the time she is a baby. In Daddy's Girl by Scorpions, from the album Face The Heat, a mother denies that her daughter is being molested by her father. In Daddy's Song by Toni Childs, from the album House of Hope, a survivor sings of sexual abuse by her father. In Fiddle About by the Who from the Rock Opera Tommy, Tommy is molested in bed by his uncle.

Icy Barrel of a Loaded Gun by Darcie Deaville, from the album Tornado In Slo Mo describes her experience of being molested by her grandfather. In Nightmare by Gaye Adegbalola, from Bitter Sweet Blues, a girl molested by her father forgives, but does not forget. Sleep by Stabbing Westward, from Wither Blister Burn & Peel tells of the despair felt by a child who is a victim of incest, and her withdrawal from reality. Wednesday's Child by Leslie Smith, from the album These Things Wrapped is a portrait of an abused daughter. Who Will Hold Me? by Amy Fix, from the album Spoon tells of a mother who molests her child.

Tier, Tier is (German for Animal), from the album Sehnsucht by Rammstein describes father/daughter abuse.

Incest as a metaphor

Sometimes the word "incestuous" is also used metaphorically to describe other inappropriately close relationships, for example between an authority figure and a subordinate, between co-workers, or between people in the same profession or creative field. The term "incest group" is also common in high school, and denotes a group of friends that only date others within their group. Institutions such as churches, colleges, and sometimes whole nations can be described as incestuous when inappropriately close relationships, corrupt conflicts of interest and secret collusions occur inside the institution and especially within the institution's top echelons such as in cases John Boyd exposed in the Pentagon.

See also

• Pedophilia and child sexual abuse in fiction
• Pedophilia and child sexual abuse in films
• Pedophilia and child sexual abuse in the theatre