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.

Contents

Literature

Japan manga and anime

Adult/child incest in fiction

Adult/child incest in non-fiction

In film

In television

Incest in popular music

Adult/child incest in songs

Incest as a metaphor

See also

Literature

For example, in Gabriel García Márquez's ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' there are several cases of sex between more or less close relatives, including that which occurs between a nephew and aunt. 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 is a frequent theme in the work of V. C. Andrews; in addition to the Flowers in the Attic series, the Culver series, starting with the book ''Dawn'', features a character abducted at birth, who later discovers that her new boyfriend is really her brother. Her brother obsesses over her and at one point rapes her. Elsewhere in the series, it is revealed that Dawn's father is really her half-brother, and that the woman she had believed to be her grandmother was raped as a teenager by her own father, resulting in the birth of a child.
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 '' 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''.
In William Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'', the King of Denmark, Claudius, married his brother's widow Gertrude, which implied their sexual relationships.
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, the queen Cersei Lannister and her brother Jaime Lannister, 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 ''The Children of Húrin'' (and the earlier ''Silmarillion''), the characters Túrin and Nienor, who are brother and sister, unwittingly enter into an incestuous marriage when they meet for the first time while Nienor is suffering from amnesia.
In the comic series Planetary (comics) by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday, Doc Brass was a the result of a eugenics experiment that went all the way back to the french revolution. In issue #5 'the good doctor' it is revealed that his parents were siblings.
In two books of Philippa Gregory's Wideacre Trilogy, Wideacre and The Favored Child, the central female characters Beatrice and Julia have intercourse with their brothers Harry and Richard, respectively.
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.
Another book where incest plays a minor role is Robert Cormier's Fade (novel). The main character, a teenage boy named Paul Moreaux, has the ability to disappear or 'fade' from sight. He uses the 'fade' to spy on two new friends, twins Emerson and his sister Page Winslow, and is shocked to witness an incestuous encounter between the two.
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.
Theodore Sturgeon's science fiction short story
"If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?"
depicts an utopian society
based on the absence of an incest taboo.
One young adult novel of note is Francesca Lia Block's Wasteland (novel), which features the incestuous relationship of a teenage brother and sister. Another is Sonya Hartnett's Sleeping Dogs, in which a brother and sister's incest is only one symptom of the family's degradation.
John Irving's book The Hotel New Hampshire chronicles the lives of the Berry family. Two of the Berry siblings, John and Franny, share a closeness that develops into an incestuous encounter when they are adults.
In "A Little Demonstration of Affection", a sensitive YA novel by Elizabeth Winthrop, teenage siblings Jenny and Charley struggle with their growing attraction to each other.
Another book featuring brother-sister incest is Judith Krantz's book "Princess Daisy". It contains some rather graphic scenes of Daisy being raped by her half-brother Ram.
In Penelope Lively's book Moon Tiger the main character Claudia Hampton reveals to the reader that she had an incestuous relationship with her brother Gordon while both were in their late teens.
In Ian McEwan's novel "The Cement Garden", the tension between the protagonist Jack and his older sister Julie culminates in 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.
At the end of A.S. Byatt's novela Morpho Eugenia, a Victorian naturalist - recently married into an aristocratic family - discovers the ongoing affair between his languid, alluring wife and her brother.
The intersexed narrator of Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex" traces his condition to a rare recessive gene which he inherited from his grandparents, a brother and sister who fled Greece for Detroit, Michigan when the Turkish army invaded in 1922.
Pauline Melville's ''The Ventriloquist's Tale'' explores the impact of European colonization on the Amerindians of Guyana through the affair of a pair of half-Scottish, half-Guyanese siblings at the time of a solar eclipse.
In the Elenium trilogy by David Eddings, Queen Ehlana's widowed father Aldreas carried on an incestuous affair with his sister, Princess Arissa. She had initially seduced him in their youth with the intent of getting him to marry her, as one of the advisors had found an obscure law which would permit it, but was thwarted by the hero's father. The affair resumed after the death of Ehlana's mother and continued until the King's death, at which time Arissa was confined to a convent.
Helen Dunmore's ''A Spell of Winter'' centers around the story of orphans Catherine and Rob Allen, who grow up in the bleak, desolate environment of their grandfather's country manor and whose relationship eventually becomes a sexual one.
Teresa, the troubled protagonist of Alice Hoffman's ''White Horses'', idolizes her brother Silver, and only after several incestuous episodes and a lifetime of disappointment does she discover that all along she has only been in love with the man she thought he was.
In the Alan Moore graphic novel Lost Girls, incest plays a prominent part in the retelling of the story of Wendy Darling and her brothers from Peter Pan.

Japan manga and anime

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'' and ''Please Twins!'', are serious, even sympathetic, studies of the characters as they struggle with their emotions and societal taboos.
In ''Hitsuji no Uta'', the two protagonists (who are twins) suffer from a strange disease that forces them to isolate themselves from society and develop an infatuation with each other as a consequence of that. Also incest is the main theme of ''Boku wa Imōto ni Koi o Suru''.
While ''Angel Sanctuary'' uses incest as a necessary plot device, others use incest mainly for shock value and titillation. For example, in ''Ouran High School Host Club'', two of the main characters are identical twins,(Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin), who often engage in romantic displays to titillate the female patrons of the Host Club; the two have a close bond, but there is no clear evidence that their romantic behavior is anything but an act.
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 step-siblings. The plot in Marmalade Boy revolves around this theme.

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 '', by Darnishia Bolden, 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 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 F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel ''Tender Is the Night'', an incestuous relationship with her father has led to the mental breakdown of the character Nicole Diver.

Adult/child incest in non-fiction

'', 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 Phalle 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.
In ''Daddy: An Erotic Memoir'', author Raul Schmidt (pseudonym) chronicles his consensual sexual relationships with both of his adult daughters.
In ''The Kiss,'' by Kathryn Harrison, the author gives her account of the consensual sexual relationship she had with her father as a young adult.

In film

''My Lover My Son'' (1970), by John Newland, in which the female main character (played by Romy Schneider) falls in love with her son (played by Dennis Waterman, who was only 10 years younger).
''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, resulting in the daughter giving birth to her own sister.
The American horror films ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' (original series 1974-1994 and remake series 2003-2006), ''Wrong Turn'' (2003), and ''The Hills Have Eyes'' (original series 1977-1985 and remake series 2006-2007) 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 Transexual (in the galaxy of Transylvania); she later dies in the throes of seducing Frank's son, her own grandson.
In the ''Star Wars'' original trilogy (1977-1983), Luke Skywalker is attracted to his fraternal twin 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 with her son.
Incest is also a main plot device in the movie ''Caligula'' (1979), in wich the Emperor (Malcolm McDowell) has sexual relations with his sisters.
In ''Cat People'' (1982), Paul Gallier (Malcolm McDowell) wants to sleep with his sister Irena (Nastassja Kinski) in order not to transform into a panther which he would have to due to his family's werecat heritage.
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 McFly inadvertently prevents his own existence when he goes back in time and his mother Lorraine falls in love with him instead of Marty's father George.
The Channel 4 film called ''Close My Eyes'' (1991), 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, due to the fact he has never been outside his mother's house in his life.
In the American film Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion it is implied that the character Michelle lost her virginity to a cousin.
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.
In ''Forrest Gump'' (1994), it is heavily implied, though never outright stated, that the character Jenny and her sisters (who are never seen) are sexually abused by their widowed father. The narrator observes that "he was a very lovin' man, always touchin' and huggin' Jenny and her sisters." Eventually, custody of Jenny is given to her grandmother; the fates of her sisters are not known. This is presumed to be the reason for the adult Jenny's promiscuity and difficulty with relationships.
A case of consensual incest between adult sisters Christine and Lea (played by Joely Richardson and Jodhi May) is shown in the English film ''Sister My Sister'' (1994), which is based on a true story.
The film ''Spanking the Monkey'' (1994) depicts a situation in which mother-son incest takes place, leading to the suicide attempt of the latter.
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 Sam'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 fraternal twins (played by Josh Hamilton and Parker Posey).
''Wicked'' (1998), starring Julia Stiles and William R. Moses, features a father-daughter relationship.
Curt Wilde, a character from the 1998 film ''Velvet Goldmine'', had a shock treatment at age 13 at the command of his parents because they discovered an incestous relationship between Wilde and his older brother.
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.''Cruel Intentions 2'' (2000) also includes a short part that features identical twin sisters Gretchen and Sarah (real-life twins Alicia and Annie Sorell) making out.
In Ridley Scott's film, ''Gladiator'' (2000), 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 + Max'' (2004), features an incestuous relationship between two teen idol 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 film ''The Quiet'' (2005), a sexual relationship between a father (Martin Donovan) and a daughter (Elisha Cuthbert) is a main plot device. Although it is consensual for most of the film, Nina (the daughter), hates her father for it.
The British short film ''Memories of a Sick Mind'' (2006) [2] implies a consensual incestuous relationship between the mentally unstable Adam and his older brother Bumble.
In the 2006 film '' features Borat Sagdiyev as an incestuous journalist, also featuring his whole village in Kazakhstan living under an incestuous way of life.
In the 2006 remake of ''Black Christmas'', Billy's mother, desperate to have a child, goes up into Billy's attic and has sex with him, resulting in her giving birth to her daughter and Billy's daughter/half-sister, Agnes.
In ''Curse of the Golden Flower'' (2006), a brother and his half-sister unknowingly enters into an incestuous relationship. There is also an instance between a woman and her step-son.
In the 2006 film The Hamiltons, Wendell and his twin sister, Darlene, have a incestuous relationship and share it quite openly.
In the South Korean film ''Maundy Thursday'', Yu-jeong (Lee Na-young) reveals that she was raped at the age of fifteen by her older cousin.

In television

The FOX television drama ''The X-Files'' featured an episode, Home, in which a family in the real Pennsylvania town had been inbreeding for several generations and had developed genetic deformities as a result. The episode received a TV-MA rating and was banned from replaying for years.
The FOX television drama ''House'' featured two young patients, a husband and wife, who share the same symptoms. Later it is revealed that they are agnate half-siblings and they suffer from a genetic disease inherited from their father. (Episode 3x05, ''Fools for Love'')
In ''the Simpsons'', Springfield's rival town Shelbyville has been founded specifically to allow men to marry their cousins.
In the PBS ''Mystery!'' production of ''Heat of the Sun'' (1999), former Scotland Yard detective Albert Tyburn investigates a murder that involves what seems to be father-daughter incest in colonial Nairobi, Kenya.
The ABC television drama ''LOST'', features two step-siblings, Boone and Shannon who engaged in an incestuous encounter.
The British soap opera ''Brookside'' ran a storyline featuring consensual incestuous sex between the two sibling characters, Nat and Georgia Simpson, in the 1990s.
The British Television series Midsomer Murders a brother and sister are revealed to be having an icestuous relationship by thier aunt (who later dies in the same episode)
The hit television series ''Prison Break'' (2005) shows the character Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell as a spawn of his father and Down syndrome-afflicted aunt; he was also molested by his father. Siblings President Caroline Reynolds and Terrence Steadman were also incestuous lovers.
In the finale episode of the third season of 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 the third season, along with his accomplice, Kit.
In the ''Futurama'' episode "Roswell that Ends Well", the crew is sent back in time to the 1940s while watching a supernova occur. With the loss of all guidance systems, their ship crash lands at Roswell, where Fry meets his grandfather, Enos. Fry is then warned by the Professor not to interfere with anything lest he disrupt 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 unknown to him is 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. This is a reference to the famous Grandfather Paradox of time travel.
The episode "Committed" (5.21) of '', shows a mother-son incest.
The Fox sitcom ''Arrested Development'' constantly plays with the idea of incest. The most ongoing is George Michael Bluth's (Michael Cera) crush on his cousin Maeby Fünke (Alia Shawkat), who in turn has a crush on Steve Holt (Justin Grant Wade), another cousin. In another scene, Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) sings the song Afternoon Delight with his niece Maeby at the company Christmas party, not realizing the sexual innuendo of the song, Lindsay and her nephew George Michael also sing the song in the same episode, also not realizing the sexual content. Lindsay Bluth (Portia de Rossi) reveals to her brother Michael, that she has always had a small attraction towards him once it is stipulated that she was adopted. Lindsay also attempts to steal her daughter Maeby's love interest, Steve Holt (her nephew), by pretending to be Maeby's sister, although she is unsuccessful. Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter) and her son, Buster Bluth (Tony Hale), live together, even though Buster is in his mid-30s and they have a comedic codependent relationship, although it is not sexual. Lucille also has a long affair with her husband's brother, Oscar.
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 Watts and Dennis Rickman in an incestuous relationship.
The British Soap ''Emmerdale'' has depicted a Storyline of incest Between Step Siblings Scott and Kelly Winsor and has Documented the Dingles to Have many Insestuous Relations within the family,especially kissing cousins Cain and Charity Dingle Which result in them having and inbred Daughter Debbie.
The British soap ''Family Affairs'' featured a storyline involving Gavin and Polly Arnold a brother and sister in a consensual incestuous relationship
The American teen drama ''The O.C'' features a sexual relationship between Ryan Atwood and Lindsay Gardner, who find out later that they are legally step-relatives. Lindsay's mother had sex with Ryan's Grandfather (though Ryan is adopted).

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 apparently an Oedipal reference rather than a true reference to incest.
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"), featuring a brother-brother gay relationship. In “''Spiel mit mir''”, the older brother apparently forces himself on his younger brother for sex so he will be able to sleep. Rammstein has written other songs dealing with incest including “Laichzeit” (“Spawn time”) and “Tier” (“Animal”).
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. For example, "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 undoubtedly 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 consensual 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 led 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 subsequent unfolding events. The trilogy begins with Alive, which singer Eddie Vedder explains as being 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 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 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 sexual relations 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.
'' features the song "Uncle Fucka", in which accusations of incest are leveled 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. Similarly, Prizefighter Inferno released a song entitiled "Our Darling Daughter You Are, Little Cecillia Marie" on the album "My Brother's Blood Machine" detailing a case of habitual father/daughter incest/rape, resulting in her attempted murder of her father. 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. ''Island'' by Heather Nova, off of her album Oyster, deals with a daughter being sexually abused by her father with nowhere to escape.
''Tier'', Tier is (German for ''Animal''), from the album ''Sehnsucht'' by Rammstein describes father/daughter abuse.
The song ''Amy In The White Coat'' by indie artist Bright Eyes tells the story of a girl (and her sisters) being molested by her father.
"Family Tree" by the thrash metal band Megadeth, from their album ''Youthanasia'', is about incest between a father and daughter.

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