Incesty Pairings

[deird_lj]

So, I come bearing pollage.

I've seen a lot of conversations about fanfic recently, in which people have discussed different pairings and said "That pairing squicks me out. It's... almost incestuous."

And I was wondering which pairings are most likely to strike people that way.


So, under the cut is a poll, full of pairings!
Rate each pairing from 1 (not incestuous in the slightest) to 10 (really really incestuous and squicky).




[Poll #1524132]


Questions? Comments?

Comments

[obiwahn.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting that people are more grossed out by Buffy/Giles than Dawn/Xander. I can't help but think it's just because Dawn/Xander have been made canon. Personally Xander/Dawn creeps me out ALOT - especially since I'm currently watching season 5 again, and Xander babysits her, has childish nicknames for her, and so on. While I don't find Buffy/Giles appealing either, it isn't as gross to me, because he is never shown infantilizing her the way Xander did toward Dawn.

At the end of the day though, incest is something that happens between blood relations. I kind of get annoyed by the whole "that's incest!" thing. It can be creepy for a number of reasons, sure. But it's not incest.

ETA: I also think it's interesting that people say they need equal power dynamics. A lot of eroticism comes from an inequality in power dynamics.

Even in the more "vanilla" of pairings - Angel/Buffy (just my opinion) where is the equality between 200 year old Angel and a 17 year old Buffy?

[deird1]

I find Buffy/Giles squicky because of the parent-child dynamic. No infantilising, no, but she asked him to walk her down the aisle, and Travers said he "has a father's love" for Buffy, and he slept with her mother, and... *shudders*

[obiwahn.livejournal.com]

It is definitely a little weird, I agree, but no more so than Xander/Dawn, IMO.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

Father/adopted daughter or father/stepdaughter isn't between blood relations - but it's incest in the eyes of society, although not in the eyes of the law in some countries.

[obiwahn.livejournal.com]

I'm heartily aware of that. Not really sure how this relates to what I said. I'm not for a Giles/Buffy relationship, for my own reasons. I was merely saying that Xander/Dawn is just as weird to me (moreso, because of the weird infantilization of Dawn that every character partakes in during season 5 and 6).

However, I also don't think it's right to "shut down" people's ships by claiming incest. It may be ooogly to us for various reasons, but they are not adopted families, or step families, and most importantly, they are not biological families (unless we are talking Joyce/Buffy here). Moreover, even if somebody did write incest fic, is it really that big of a deal? This isn't real life. There is a whole genre of Wincest fic out there, for example.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

I was just pointing out that your statement "incest is something that happens between blood relations" isn't strictly accurate, especially if we're discussing squickiness rather than legality.

I find Xander/Dawn hugely squicky - I think I gave it a 9, and its recent appearance in canon is one of the things that has made me start questioning Joss's sanity - but not quite as squicky as Buffy/Giles, which to me is the squicky-est possible relationship in the 'verse not involving blood relations because Giles is definitely a parental figure and he's even boinked her mother.