Westermarck and Fantasy

"It is debatable but it appears that we have developed as a species to not be attracted to close kin for good reasons - the possibility (real) of defects occurring because of genetic considerations. No expert but that appears to be why we have such laws more than anything else - apart from the underage considerations."

Humans are animals. And like any other animal, some selective inbreeding can strengthen positive traits without causing damage. Excessive inbreeding can allow recessive diseases to dominate. But why "folk-wisdom" denies what animal husbandry proves, just goes to show that uninformed disgust trumps fact every time.

And Westermarck Effect doesn't ( to reify it ) care whether were talking genetic relatives or not. Blood relatives who live apart during the attachment phase don't feel Westermarck ( this would be the British Boarding School Effect. ) And the Israeli Kibbutz study showed that raising non-relatives as siblings creates Westermarck.

But then again, sex has been divorced from procreation for a long time now. Nor are we concerned enough about recessive diseases to force all prospective sexual partners to go through genetic testing for, say, Tay-Sachs. Nor would argument from eugenics convince any to have sex with their relatives where the desire is lacking.

However, whether its rational or not, Westermarck is there. And when we feel something unreasonable, our culture tends to rationalize it. We now know better how to avoid death from Trichinosis or out-of-season bivalves, but lots of luck rewriting Leviticus.

Some have argued that Westermarck exists to counteract an incestuous impulse to seek out partners who more closely resemble our relatives. ( And again, British Boarding School Effect tends to show that close relatives separated during the attachment phase tend to be attracted; even moreso when they're unaware of a relationship. )

"I am not sure if you have noticed since being a CL you will not be looking but much of adult porn is actually more about the hatred of females than anything else. Since when did anal sex and all the other permutations become the norm?"

Not necessarily true. But if that's what you're looking for, that's what you'll see.

Mainstream Pronz is about the orgasm, and orgasms are selfish. Its about fantasy, and fantasies don't revolve around catering to your partner. Pronz isn't a guide on how to be realistic or how to communicate, its about getting off.

The female equivalent objectifies guys and is centered purely around female fantasies with disregard for what a man might want. ( Or to put it better, the men in romance Pronz want for themselves only what it suits the female fantasy for them to want. ) And both forms of fantasy eschew communication. Somehow the horny housewife craves to do things for the guy without getting anything in return. And somehow the wild and untamed firefighter/heir/biker really wants to settle-down and help her raise those twins ( yes, single-mother Romance novels are a burgeoning sub-genre. )

Furthermore, some of the most popular fantasies are about what one isn't getting on a regular basis in RL. Hetero-anal pronz has been around since the daugerreotype. I suspect that it will disappear about the same time that folks start replacing books about magic-using heroes with stories about CPAs.

Dante