INCEST [by Janhvi]

"I love Janhvi's blog because you feel the truth and honesty in her words...You will find her HERE....over to her" - SUB
P.S. The opinion below is that of the writer and not necessarily of Khoj....any one willing to write a guest post here can email me at subhrashis.adhikari@gmail.com >>>


I am just another girl among oh so many. I just love to spend hours altogether listening to songs on my system and viewing pictures of my family members, especially my young cousins. I love talking and people around me stay amazed by my quality of constant talking. Am an introvert to the world, but my true friends know that am actually anything but an introvert. Am extremely fond of reading ( mainly fiction) and of writing. As the name of my blog suggests (Thoughtful Thoughts), I write about any thought that stays long enough for me to pen (type) down as a post. Thoughts are in millions, but thoughtful thoughts are a few.

INCEST

Hi all Khoj visitors. I hope what I write is able to live up to the expectation with which you all visit Khoj. I do have my doubts, because, unlike the posts here, my posts are not always able to provoke thoughts.

I remember the first time I wrote on a taboo topic. That was when Sub had challenged me to write on the life of a rape survivor (here). So, when I thought of writing a guest post for Khoj, which is my first guest post anywhere, I decided to take the risk and write about another taboo topic – Incest.

As most of you would be aware, Incest is the presence of sexual relations between members of the same blood family, eg: Siblings, Parent-child etc.

Let’s start not with society, but with why it is incorrect biologically. An incest relationship is harmful for the resultant child due to both sharing the same gene pool.  The most common problem that can arise is of a genetic disorder. So, inbreeding, as the common name goes, for having children by incest relations, should be avoided for biological reasons.

Taking this one step further, how correct/incorrect are such relations when not done for the purpose of giving birth to a child. Is safe incest sex ok? The answer unanimously is NO. But I want you to not stop at the taboo and think beyond, and then tell me.

When two people have sex, it is not a taboo (considering both are adults, and not considering the over sensitive society here in India). Now if these two are, say, siblings, why is it suddenly a taboo? I know it is. I am asking you why? For most of us, it is a taboo only because we have always been taught and have always thought so. How many of us have actually given it a thinking as to why it is so forbidden in society.

You would argue that how can a person who has maternal/paternal feelings towards the other person be involved in a sexual relation with her/him. To that, I give you (actually Freud gave it) the Oedipus and Electra complex. A fellow blogger has mentioned this as an example in an earlier guest post here at Khoj (here). It has been proved by Sigmund Freud that a child at one stage of growing up has sexual feelings towards its parent of the opposite sex. Most of us outgrow this feeling, but what about the ones who don’t. It is more often than not these people who indulge in incest relations.

Now that we know that we all had such feelings when we were very young (and try not to fool yourself by saying it is not applicable to you, because unless you were not a normal child, you did too go through this stage of development), is it still such a taboo. Just because we outgrew it and certain others did not, does it give us the right to shun them and think of them as perverts?

Some of us outgrow the liking of toffees and chocolates, while some others do not. So are the ones who do not to be criticized and shunned? And yes, it is that basic a comparison. The two things are only different because we have made one socially acceptable while the other inacceptable.

I am no advocate of Incest relations. But just because you and I do not fall in this category, I believe it does not give us a right to judge others who do feel like this for their family members.

As for all you who think I am sick pervert writing about Incest, calling it acceptable, and mentioning Freud’s theory, here is something else Freud said,

‘The thing we most deny/shun is the one that is most oppressed in our unconscious.’ With these harsh words and a fact that Incest is the reality of this world for many, I take your leave.