laws are rarely enforced — except in cases where minors are involved — and oral sex is seen in a new and much brighter light.
Anal intercourse is known to be used by a great number of couples, and the mention of this act no longer creates the revulsion that it once did. If not completely toppled, another taboo has at least been weakened.
Homosexuals, both male and female, have gained a new acceptance. Without putting it in writing, without changing the statutes that have discouraged and suppressed acts of homosexuality, society has finally conceded to these people their right to behave as they choose so long as their acts do not infringe upon the rights of others.
Yes, most of the taboos have faded away into limbo; and others are faltering. This is due in large part to the great advances made in psychosexual knowledge during recent years; due to studies such as the Kinsey reports, which showed such acts to be much more widespread than had previously been thought. It was information obtained from such studies that created a new atmosphere in which such acts are seen as small parts of the sexual scene rather than the 'sick' acts of a 'perverted' mind.
But what about incest?
Incest, of course, refers to sexual relations between members of the same family — between brother and sister, between mother and son, between father and daughter. The relationship may be homosexual such as a lesbian experiment between two sisters: or it may be troilistic (troilism is sex involving three partners) such as the case described by Brenda at the opening of this book. Still, it is incest.
The actual sex act may be oral, it may be anal, or it may be ordinary copulation; but, if it involves two members of the same family, it is incest.
And it is the one taboo on which Western society has refused to yield. There is little evidence to indicate that it will.
Much of the rationale upon which society bases its condemnation of the incestuous relationship springs, of course, from genetic and biological factors. There is certain evidence that pregnancies which result from intercourse between closely related couples show a high incidence of genetic complications in the offspring — deformed or mentally retarded children. This is the basis of the laws by which many of our states forbid marriages between close relatives, such as first cousins.
A much larger portion of the arguments against incest, however, are based on custom. There was a time when it was the duty of a daughter — nearly her sole duty — to bring a husband into the household, thus expanding the size, the wealth, and the strength of the family. Virginity was highly prized, especially during the Victorian era, and a girl was expected to remain a virgin until marriage. For this reason, all contacts with male members within the family structure were closely supervised, rigid separation of the sexes was imposed. Even the most innocent of contacts between brother and sister, for instance, were condemned and punished, and the child was guided outward — to expand and strengthen the family. To err was to live forever in guilt.
Edward M. Brecher, in his book The Sex Researchers, reports that Henry Havelock Ellis, one of the first and most famous of those who have explored the intricate world of sex, had his first sexual experience with a young cousin' who came to visit. Though the event is described as very mild and timid, young Ellis, raised in the strict Victorian era of the mid-1800s, seems to have borne the memory to his grave.
For years, the book reports, Ellis was totally incapable of enjoying sexual intercourse, never achieving ejaculation until he was well into his thirties. Then, when finally he chose to marry, Ellis chose a lesbian to be his bride. He knew of her lesbianism, and is said to have accepted it. Anna, his wife, brought her conquests into their home.
It was only after the death of his wife, the author reports, that Ellis was able to achieve full sexual gratification — and he found it with a former mistress of his deceased wife. Brecher attributes much of the sexual problems of Havelock Ellis to the lingering guilt in his mind — guilt brought on by an affair so mild that it would go unnoticed today.
So it is that society enforces its customs.
But this work will not concern itself with the milder forms of incest — the innocent kissing and fondling of children — and it will not attempt to explore the full spectrum of such relationships… It will, instead, focus on one aspect of the subject. Daughters and fathers.
In these pages you are going to meet daughters and fathers who obey no rules but their own, daughters and fathers who choose to violate the moral codes imposed by our culture, and you are going to hear, in their own words, with no apologies, why and how they do so.
You are going to meet the people who have passed the barrier against incest, the barrier that Freud described in the following manner:
… Respect for this barrier is essentially a cultural demand made by society. Society must defend itself against the danger that the interests which it needs for the establishment of higher social units may be swallowed up by the family; and for this reason, in the case of every individual, it seeks by all possible means to loosen their connection with their family — a connection which, in their childhood, is the only important one.
… The parents' affection far the child may awaken his sexual instincts prematurely to such a degree that the mental excitation breaks through in an unmistakable fashion to the genital system. If, on the other hand, the parent is able to postpone this excitation until later, the affection can perform its task of directing the child in his choice of a sexual object when he reaches maturity.
… Time has been gained in which the child can erect, among other things, the barrier against incest, and can thus take up into himself the moral precepts which expressly exclude from his object-choice, as being blood- relations, the persons whom he has loved in his childhood.
'The barrier against incest,' Freud continues, 'is probably among the historical acquisitions of mankind, and, like other moral taboos, has no doubt already become established in some persons by organic inheritance. Psycho-analytic investigation shows, however, haw intensely the individual struggles with the temptation to incest during his period of growth and haw frequently the barrier is transgressed in fantasies and even in reality.' While many researchers dispute Freud's theory of organic inheritance of the 'barrier against incest', most will agree that the barrier is frequently transgressed 'in fantasies and even in reality'.
But how frequently?
Statistics on the frequency of incest are difficult to came by, and even mare difficult to judge as to accuracy. Most cases of incest are revealed only when, through some other occurrence, such as the pregnancy of a minor, the law becomes involved. This, of course, is only the tip of an iceberg. It is difficult to judge the size of the iceberg itself.
The late Alfred Kinsey, during research for his Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, asked the 4,441 women who were interviewed if they had experienced sexual contacts before adolescence. Nearly one in four reported that they had; and, in 609 cases where the older males were identified, only 52 percent were strangers, friends or acquaintances accounted far 32 percent, and the rest were members of the family. Uncles accounted far 9 percent of the first sexual contacts of the women interviewed, brothers, accounted far 3 percent and the other 4 percent were introduced to sex by their own fathers.
These figures represent the percentages of the 609 cases in which the first sexual contact was identified, of course, and it may be inaccurate to attempt to extend them to the full survey. Still, they indicate that a startling number of young females were — and are — first seduced by a member of their own family. And seduced may be an inappropriate term. It seems reasonable to assume that there are many cases where the daughter take the initiative, leading her own father dawn the primrose path that leads to incestuous intercourse.
If the Kinsey report can be accepted as an accurate cross-section of the sexual habits of the human creature — and mast researchers concede that it is exactly that — then the number of people who have engaged in intercourse with members of their own family must be truly staggering. As a matter of fact, many researchers have argued that, if the Kinsey figures were inaccurate in any way — it was because they underestimated the number of people who have engaged in the sexual practices not readily accepted by our society.
The recent changes in the family structure are another fact or that must be taken into consideration in any objective study of incest. The Kinsey study was published in 1953. In that year the family was, in mast cases, headed by the father. He was respected as the one who provided. The profile he presented to his child was probably much stronger than is seen by the daughter of today, and for that reason she may well have been less likely to attempt to hurdle the barrier of incest by which they were separated.
Today, in ever-growing numbers, women are gaining equality within the family structure. They work. They
