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, even more of this type of fiction is available.

Besides this, incest is sometimes mentioned or described in mainstream, non-erotic fiction. Connotations can be negative, positive, or neutral.

Literature

Incestuous families in fiction

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 Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, in which fraternal twins share a cathartic sexual experience.

In Time Enough for Love, Lazarus Long uses genetic arguments to initially dissuade a brother and sister he has adopted from sexual experimentation with each other, but he later arranges for them to be married, having discovered that they (in an extremely rare but scientifically possible circumstance) are not brother and sister on a genetic level; he also consummates his strong sexual attraction to his own mother, whom he goes back in time to see again. Long is himself cloned into two female forms, Lorelei Lee and Lapis Lazuli, who while raised as his daughters, are later said to have seduced him.

In his last book published before Heinlein's death, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, the mother, Maureen Johnson, encourages her husband (Brian Johnson) to sleep with their teen daughter, Nancy, and is with him when he actually does so. Maureen later discovers that her two youngest children are engaged in heterosexual incest, which bothers her primarily in that the sister will not let her brother see other women.

Incest is a frequent theme in the work of V. C. Andrews.The Dollanganger series, starting with the book "Flowers in the Attic", the main character, Cathy Dollanganger, develops an incestuous relationship with her older brother, Chris, after being locked up in the attic for over three years, even living with him as his wife. In the following sequels, they find out that their parents were half-uncle and niece (as well as half-siblings). Their grandfather was obsessed with his mother, stepmother, and daughter. The Cutler series, starting with the book Dawn, the main character, Dawn, who was abducted at birth, 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. Her grandfather is really her biological father 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. She later marries her adopted brother. The Casteel series' main character, Heaven, falls in love with her uncle and has a daughter with him. The Landry series' main character, Ruby, finds out that her first boyfriend is really her half-brother and even marries him in one of the sequels. In the Logan series, the main character, Melody, discovers that her boyfriend (who is a distant cousin) was obsessed with his twin sister.

Vladimir Nabokov's novel Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle 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.

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 and psychologically unstable. 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. The royal house of Targaryen was known to have practiced the custom of sibling incest and often polygamy for hundreds of years. The first Targaryen king, Aegon, wed both of his sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys. Baelor I, a.k.a. Baelor the Blessed, imprisoned his three sisters (who were also his wives) in the Maidenvault so as not to be tempted by their beauty. There may be evidence of genetic problems due to inbreeding in the Targaryen family, as some of them, such as Aerion Brightflame and Aerys II, were insane. King Jahaerys II once famously stated that the gods flip a coin when a Targaryen is born to determine his or her fate: on one side lies greatness, the other madness. Theon Greyjoy also unwittingly makes sexual advances upon his sister, Asha, after meeting her for the first time in many years. Upon arriving at their father's castle, Asha's identity is revealed, and Asha, among others, proceed to mock Theon for his actions.

Incest is a central theme in Mario Puzo's The Family.

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.

Incest is detailed in Linda Howard's novel, Shades of Twilight. It deals with the incestuous feelings the main character, Roanna, has for her second cousin, Webb, who is married to another cousin, Jessie. It is revealed that Jessie had a secret incestuous affair with her father and became pregnant by him, which led to her grandmother accidently killing her and Webb leaving the family when he is blamed for her death. At the end of the book, when the secrets of Jessie's death are cleared, Webb professes his love for Roanna and marries her after she becomes pregnant with his child.

Sibling incest in fiction

Fantasy fiction

In Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana, a consensual, sexual relationship is strongly hinted between Dianora and her brother, Baerd.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Children of Húrin, 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. This is a development of the story explored more briefly in Tolkien's The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Book of Lost Tales, all of which included versions of the tale.

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.

P. C. Hodgell's God Stalker Chronicles feature a group of races tied together by religion. The Highborn race was trying to bred the "Tyr-Ridan", three people representing the three faces of their god, to full fill a prophecy that the Tyr-Ridan would defeat Perimal Darkling, their god's enemy. The breeding project involved brother-sister and other incestuous matings.

In the novel Silverhand by Morgan Llywelyn and Michael Scott, the main antagonists Sarel and Lares, who are twins, facilitate their magic through an incestuous relationship.

In Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, the hero Siegfried is the son of the incestuous relationship between Siegmund and Sieglinde.

In George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, Queen Cersei has all her children from her twin brother, Jaime's seed. This remains unknown to the King. Her justification lay with the fact they shared a womb, stating that they were one person split into two.

Science-fiction

Incest also appears in the writings of two major authors of science fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin and Robert A. Heinlein. Le Guin's short story "Nine Lives" features ten clones (five male, five female) of the same person, whose intimate relationship includes incest. Her novel The Left Hand of Darkness contains a story of two siblings who mate, despite a taboo against it.

A character in Isaac Asimov's The Last Question states that he is the son of siblings.

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune sees the marriage of fraternal twins Ghanima and Leto II in the closing chapter of the book. However, the marriage is non-sexual and merely a means to cement the imperial throne solely under the Atreides name. All children born under this marriage are secretly those of Ghanima and the House Corrino prince Farad'n.

In Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant, The main character's sister has sex with him when he is 15 and she is 12.

Historic fiction

In two books of Philippa Gregory's Wideacre Trilogy, Wideacre and The Favored Child, the central female character of "Wideacre", Beatrice, committs incest with her brother, Harry, and her two children, Julia and Richard, were fathered by Harry. In The Favored Child, Richard rapes Julia and forces her to marry him when she discovers that she is pregnant with his child, Sarah (or Meridon). Philippa Gregory also insinuates incest between siblings in her novel The Other Boleyn Girl. It seems that George Boleyn has had some level of a sexual relationship with both of his sisters, Anne and Mary.

It also played a minor role in Stephanie Laurens' 12th Cynster novel The Truth About Love, where the villainous Fritham siblings, Jordan and Eleanor, often tryst in Hellabore Hall's Garden of Night. They murder 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 them again. This creates a huge problem for Jordan, who had plotted to gain Hellabore Hall through a marriage with Jacqueline.

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.

At the end of A. S. Byatt's novella Morpho Eugenia, a Victorian naturalist—recently married into an aristocratic family—discovers the ongoing affair between his languid, alluring wife and her brother.

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.

Contemporary fiction

In books written as early as 1956, Robert Heinlein dealt with incest and the sexual nature of children.

In Matthew Gregory Lewis's Gothic novel, The Monk, the protagonist, Ambrosio, lusts after and eventually rapes the girl, Antonia, who he later discovers to be his sister.

Incest plays a minor role in Robert Cormier's novel Fade. 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.

Judith Krantz's book Princess Daisy contains some rather graphic scenes of a woman being raped by her half-brother.

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.

In the novel "Hide" by Lisa Gardner, it is revealed that a previous mental patient and serial killer, Christopher forced his younger sister Natalie into performing sexual acts on him when they were teenagers.

The intersex 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. His parents had also been second cousins.

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 James Ellroy's novel White Jazz, the main character David Klein has an incestuous relationship with his sister Meg.

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 evolves into 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 A Little Demonstration of Affection by Elizabeth Winthrop, teenage siblings Jenny and Charley struggle with their growing attraction to each other.

Paul Theroux's 1978 novel Picture Palace revolves around the incestuous love that the protagonist, Maude Pratt, has for her brother Orlando, without realizing that he is having an affair with their sister Phoebe.

The Josephine Hart novel Damage (and 1992 Louis Malle film) has an implicit depiction of incest. The character Anna (portrayed by Juliette Binoche) alludes to having had an incestuous relationship with her brother, who commits suicide because of his desire for her.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón's best-selling novel The Shadow of the Wind features main characters Julián Carax and Penélope Aldaya who are siblings and also lovers.

In E. Annie Proulx's 1993 novel The Shipping News and the 2001 film adaptation of the same name, it is explained that Agnis Hamm was once raped by her teenage half-brother when she was 12, resulting in a pregnancy which was terminated.

Liza and Ludwig Pursewarden in Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet (1957–60) are sister and brother. They have a long sexual relationship until she marries a man called David Mountolive.

In Jess C Scott's erotic short story Wicked Lovely, a brother and sister look to themselves, and not society, to make sense of the sexual love they share.

Young-Adult fiction

In the novel City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, the main character, Clary, and her romantic interest, Jace, discover that they are siblings. Their romantic relationship (though now very tense) continues into the second book, City of Ashes. But in the third installment, City of Glass, it is later revealed they are not siblings, so it really isn't incest. However, Clary's real older brother, Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern (who Clary has never met), impersonates Sebastian Verlac (whom Clary or the other characters have also never met). Clary is unaware that Sebastian is really her brother spying for their father, Valentine, and it leads to them sharing a kiss. However, unlike when she kisses Jace (even when they still think they are related), she notices that kissing Sebastian feels wrong.

One young adult novel of note is Francesca Lia Block's Wasteland, which features the incestuous relationship of a teenage brother and sister.

In the Young-Adult series Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz, which features vampires reincarnated every lifetime and couples who are "bonded" and find each other every lifetime, two of the semi-main characters, who are a bonded couple, are twins.

In Sonya Hartnett's Sleeping Dogs, a brother and sister's incest is only one symptom of the family's degradation.

Incest between same-sex siblings

Jean Genet's Absurdist play "The Maids" contains incestuous undertones between the two sisters, Solange and Claire.

In his Unbreakable Bonds romance/erotica series (Brothers Without Borders and Sterling Gold), Leiland Dale deals with the incestuous love between two sets of brothers.

The erotica novel Tempestuous Relations by Amanda Young tells the relationship that develops between twins Dominic and Mason.

Parent-children incest in fiction

Incest also appears in John Milton's Paradise Lost in which Satan commits incest with his daughter, Sin. Their child, Death, after terrible childbirth, proceeds to rape his mother.

The 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate (and less explicitly in the two film adaptations based upon it) portrays incest between Eleanor Iselin and her son Raymond and refers to earlier incest between Eleanor and her own father.

Father/daughter incest

In a later novel of Irving, The Cider House Rules, the chief picker of the apple crop, Mr Rose, has an incestuous relationship with his daughter, Rose Rose, and even makes her pregnant.

In My Bedroom, by Donna Hill describes a girl raped by her father.

Jessie is the central character in Stephen King's Gerald's Game. She is sexually abused by her father at the age of 10.

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.

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man also deals with incest. The main character, at one point in the novel, comes into contact with a family in which the daughter has been impregnated by the father.

Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye echoes Ellison's work in its portrayal of father-daughter incest, which, like in Invisible Man, is portrayed not as consensual incest but as child molestation.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel Tender Is the Night, the character Nicole Diver eventually has a nervous breakdown as a result of an incestuous relationship with her father.

In Denise Mina's crime-fiction novel Garnethill, the main character Maureen O'Donnell is raped by her father.

In Harper Lee's only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird it is not stated but insinuated that Mayella Ewell is sexually abused by her father.

In Danielle Steel's novel Malice, the main character Grace shoots and kills her father when he tries to rape her after her mother's funeral. He had been sexually abusing her almost nightly for years after her mother became ill and could no longer satisfy him.

In Poppy Z Brite's book Lost Souls there are two incidences of adult/child incest. Wallace Creech sleeps with his young adult daughter Jessy and vampire, Zillah, has a deeply sexual relationship with his son, Nothing.

In Sapphire's debut novel Push, the main character, Precious, has two children with her own father. She is also sexually abused by her mother.

In Zacharias Topelius's Tales of the Barber-Surgeon, the forefather of Bertelskiöld noble family, Gustav Bertel, is son of his older sister. It is revealed only on the last pages of Book I that his sister, whom he had thought to be only his sister of his father's earlier marriage (he has assumed his mother died at childbirth) is also his mother and he got begotten in an incestuous relationship with his father and sister.

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.

The eponymous narrator of Kelly Braffet's Josie and Jack is homeschooled by her sometimes-abusive, mostly absent father, an academic. When Josie follows her brother Jack away from home and into the arms of a string of older women seduced by his charms, she begins to recognize the underlying personality traits – possessiveness, control freak – shared by the father she loathes and the brother she adores.

Father/son incest

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.

Mother/son incest

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 also plays a major role in the sequel to Oedipus, Antigone, which revolves around the lives of the four children produced by Oedipus and his mother. The main figure is their oldest daughter, Antigone, who believes she and her siblings are cursed because of their parents. Also, Antigone is engaged to her first cousin, once removed, Haemon (which was, however, not considered incestuous in the culture of the time nor is today in other parts of the world).

My Mother by George Bataille is a coming-of-age story leading to a mother/son relationship. Christophe Honore's Ma Mère movie is loosely based on the book.

In The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things by JT LeRoy, five-year-old Jeremiah is physically and sexually abused by his prostitute mother.

In Incendies, a French-Canadian film about twin siblings travelling to Lebanon to find their brother and father in obedience to their late mother's will, the twins discover that they are the product of incest between their mother and a son she had in 1970, who raped her aged 18 when she was in prison for murder of a Christian far-right militant. They then give the two envelopes their mother has prepared (labelled "to the father" and "to the son" in French) to the same man after finding him in their own country under an assumed identity.

In Ken Park, a 2002 drama based on Larry Clark's journals and stories, an incestuous relationship develops between the protagonist and his biological mother. As a result of this and other socially sensitive material depicted in the film, an uncensored version of the movie has been made unavailable in many countries.

Other adult/child incest in fiction

One of the main plots of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Rant features the possibility of time travel combined with incest. By replacing one's own father, grandfather and great-grandfather by the means of time travel, one might purify one's own genetic material to a great extent. The main character, who is assumably the product of such a process, has for example, a largely extended ability to smell, increased perception and has also an increased ability to deal with pain and poisoning.

In Selena kitt's novel Under Mr. Nolan's Bed , the main character, Leah, finds herself torn between her best friend and her best friend's father.

Time for the Stars in which Tom returns from his travels to marry his great grand niece, having known her telepathically since she was a baby. Glory Road in which a mother and her daughters (18 and 13 years old) offer their sexual favors to the protagonist—the more of them he accepts, by their cultural standards, the more he honors them—but, bound by his own Earthly inhibitions, he does them the dishonor of refusing their offer.

Other kinds of incest

Incest appears in many of William Faulkner's works, either enacted or imagined. Examples include Go Down, Moses, The Sound and the Fury and Sanctuary.

The novel, First Love: A Gothic Tale by Joyce Carol Oates, portrays the abusive/sexual relationship 11-year-old Josie has with her adult cousin, Jared. The psychological and physical abuse she receives from her mother and aunt makes her believe that Jared's sexual abuse is a form of him expressing his love to her.

The novel (and subsequent manga series), Silver, is about the main character's love for her cousin turn into hate when he betrays her by killing her father and pretending to be in love with her so he can gain her inheritance. She seeks out revenge against him by disguising herself as the "perfect woman" and begins an affair with him, with intents on ruining his life by taking away all the things he desires.

Adult/child incest in non-fiction

In High on Arrival, the autobiography of actress Mackenzie Phillips, she purports to having a 'consensual' incestuous relationship with her father, John Phillips, the frontman for the 1960s rock group, The Mamas and the Papas. She spoke of the decade long affair on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Strong at the Heart: How it feels to heal from sexual abuse, by Carolyn Lehman, includes a number of true stories of incest.

Casanova would accidentally fall in love with his own daughter, Leonilda, only finding out the truth when she introduces him to her mother. Of which Casanova writes, "My hair stood on end, and I relapsed into a gloomy silence." Having been courting her for some time, the "rapid transition from carnal to paternal love" was almost overwhelming emotionally.

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 child molester, as a member of a pedophile ring.

Daddy, written and directed by Niki de Saint Phalle, tells the story of Saint Phalle's history of sexual abuse at the hands of 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 six to 14, when he gets 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 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 Mikey Walsh's Gypsy Boy, he reveals how he was sexually abused as a child by his Uncle over a period of a few years.

Comic books

In the Planetary comic book series by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday, Doc Brass was a the result of an 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 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 and Dorothy Gale and her "uncle" (actually her father) from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Japanese manga and anime

Incest has been a recurring subject in Japanese manga such as Osamu Tezuka's Ayako (1972–1973). Incest has also been a subject in Japanese anime, dating all the way back to one of the medium's earliest pornographic titles, Cream Lemon. Sibling incest is the most common manifestation.

Sibling incest

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 Please Twins! this is because both girls fell in love with the protagonist, despite knowing that either of them could be his biological twin sister. Also the side character Matagu has shown an obvious sexual attraction to his younger sister, who is fully aware that he is a pervert. In Koi Kaze, a brother and sister fall in love without realizing their blood relationship, and when they do find out, they struggle with continuing the relationship and hurting their parents or moving onto a platonic relationship and lying to themselves. They even consider a suicide pact, but they ultimately decide to continue the relationship and live together.

The incestuous feelings may be a source of trouble or angst for the protagonists. In shojo manga Boku wa Imōto ni Koi o Suru, Yori and Iku are twin brother and sister who have been extremely close all their lives and who now begin to fall in love with each other and have to face the consequences of it. It is later revealed that they are half-twins due to them being the product of a heteropaternal superfecundation (they have different fathers). At the end, Yori attempts to separate from her for 10 years but when he and Iku reunite, he says that he still loves her and it is hinted that they have resumed their relationship. In the manga Tsumi Ni Nureta Futari, Kasumi begins an incestuous affair with her younger brother, Yoshiki, after being separated most of their lives. Their friends and mother try to separate them, even by kidnapping and violence. At the end, Yoshiki fakes his death so he and Kasumi can move to Rome and be together for good.

In the manga series Oniichan☆Control, Noa's big brother Hirose Goushi is in love with her, but tries to control himself, as he knows he should not. However, Noa is fully aware of this and is in love with her brother, so she does everything she can to get him to stop restraining himself all while pretending to be an innocent little sister.

Shojo manga author Kaori Yuki has used this theme twice. In Godchild, the protagonist, Cain Hargreaves, is the product of the incestuous union of his father and his father's older sister, inheriting gold-green eyes and the curse of being unable to love anyone who was not blood related to him. Cain also has a love interest in his half-sister/cousin who doesn't return his feelings. Later, in Angel Sanctuary, she uses incest as a necessary plot device. Setsuna Mudo is in love with his sister, Sara, who returns his feelings. As it turns out, Setsuna is the reincarnation of the angel Alexiel, who long ago was punished to be reincarnated as a human, while Sara is in fact Jibril, the Angel of Water. They are so determined to stay together that they willingly abandon their family and future without a second thought and Setsuna searches relentlessly in Hell for Sara's soul.

Sometimes the incest is ambiguous or suggested. In Revolutionary Girl Utena, the character Nanami Kiryuu expresses sexual desire and jealousy towards her older brother Touga, who is the school playboy. Another character, Kozue Kaoru, uses her sexuality to elicit a frustrated protectiveness from her twin brother Miki. Incestuous themes between the central character Anthy Himemiya and her brother Akio Ohtori develop towards the end of the show.

Sometimes, these feelings end up happily. In Myself ; Yourself, twins Shuusuke and Shuri elope near the end of the series. In the epilogue, it is implied that they return to Sakuranomori and are a couple. In Yosuga no Sora, Sora has feelings for her twin brother, Haru, ever since they were kids. After their parents passed away, they moved back to the old house and Sora has been keeping her feelings suppressed while she fantasizes being with him. In episode 11 and 12, they had opened themselves to their feelings and decide to abandon their friends and home to be together.

Other times, the love story ends dramatically. In the manga series Flowers of Evil, Se-Joon has loved his twin sister, Se-Wan, ever since childhood. They eventually make forbidden love one night, which Se-Joon regrets. They attempt to redeem themselves by running away, during which Se-Wan dies. At the end, despaired over the loss of his beloved sister, Se-Joon committs suicide with a photo of him and her in his arms.

In some series, sibling incest is shown to be common or allowed in a particular setting. In anime and manga Vampire Knight, pureblooded vampires often marry siblings to keep their bloodline pure – Yuki Cross's parents were siblings, and it was stated that she was "born" to be Kaname's (her older brother) wife. In Tenchi Muyo!, the character of Ayeka was once engaged to her half-brother, Yosho. On Ayeka's planet, such a thing is not considered bad. She is later shown to have feelings for Yosho's grandson Tenchi, who is technically her nephew.

In other occurrences, the incest is the result of special circumstances. 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.

Sometimes, the incest is reserved to the antagonists. The anime and manga Black Lagoon alludes to an incestuous relationship between two antagonists, the Romanian young twins Hansel and Gretel. It is mainly used to enhance the repercussions of their highly traumatic childhood and illustrate their unbalanced mental state. In Shakugan no Shana, the Tomogara twin siblings Sorath and Tiriel publicly expressed incest through kissing each other. In the anime Twilight of the Dark Master, an incestuous relationship is hinted at/revealed between two of Tsunami's enemies, the Long siblings.

The incestuous feelings are not always returned. In the anime/manga series Shugo Chara!, the character Utau is in love with her older brother, Ikuto. She forcefully kisses him in both the anime and manga. Ikuto, though, does not return her feelings. In the manga series 17-Sai no Real, Ruri finds out that her brother, Keito, has feelings for her. He is very jealous of her relationship with Jyunya and attempts to rape her once. At the end, they reconcile and remain close.

Others use incest mainly for shock value and titillation. For example, in Ouran High School Host Club, two of the main characters, Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, are identical twins 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. However, they do sometimes act affectionate with each other while no one else is around, and they share a bed as well.

In the anime and manga .hack//Legend of the Twilight, the characters Rena and Shugo, siblings, carry out actions that allude to an incestuous attraction to each other's in-game avatars. This is usually done through as a running gag, or more serious instances. Shugo's dedication to saving Rena when she disappears may be an incarnation for an incestuous romantic caring for her, although this is questionable.

There may also be cases, used for dramatics, where one or both of the characters do not know of their relationship, such as seen in Berserk where the character Farnese appears to house incestuous feelings for her (although unknown to her) half-brother Serpico. He knows and refutes her advances. In the manga Andante, Natsu discovers that his girlfriend, Mel, is his half-sister by the same father and they break up. Previously, Natsu had dated Mei after his father married her mother but they broke up when they became attracted to other people.

Other times, incest is just a passing reference. In Tenjho Tenge, Mana Kuzunoha, the deceased girlfriend of the deceased brother of Maya Natsume, Shin Natsume, once stated that Shin and Maya treated each other like lovers instead of siblings. In the anime/manga series Bleach, in Chapter 430 it is suggested by Karin that her sister Yuzu has incestuous feelings for their older brother Ichigo.

Sometimes, they may be the representation of a character's desire. In the manga After School Nightmare, by Setona Mizushiro, one of the three main characters, the teenage student Sou Mizuhashi, is often persuaded by his elder sister Ai into having sexual intercourses with her (he even loses his virginity to her). Though, it is later revealed in the story that this does not occur in reality, but it only happens in a sort of oneiric/subcounscious state of the characters' mind.

Even in other cases, the incestuous relationship happens when the characters are not themselves, by reason of brainwashing, amnesia or other circumstances. In the series Big O in Episode 9, it is revealed that Mr. Wise's 40 year old son is a child of incest with his sister, though this due to the fact at the time when all memories were wiped out at the time they were unaware of who the other was. In the series Ayashi no Ceres, Aya is nearly raped by her twin brother, Aki, when he is brainwashed by Mikagi.

In Maze, Mei and her brother, Akira, had an incestuous encounter when they were young and this led him to being viewed as an outcast by their parents. However, they are still in love with each other and remain together, despite their love being a taboo.

The manga series Densen Complex, portrays several stories of sibling incest.

Brother/sister complex

Incest often takes the form of brother/sister complex. The series B Gata H Kei, the character Kyouka Kanejou is known to have a severe brother complex. To the point she has a room with nothing but his images everywhere, uses her influence to keep any other girls away from him, and even wishes for nothing more than for her brother to take her virginity.

In the series Kiddy Grade, the agent Tweedledum is known to have a strong sister complex towards his partner/sister Tweedledee.

In the anime/manga series My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute, it is heavily hinted that the character Kirino has a brother complex as she loves adult games with a little sister love theme. She also hints a feeling of jealousy when her brother is with, or shows interest in, other girls.

In the manga series Girls Saurus, Subaru Chiryū, the main character Shingo Chiryū's little sister, has a strong incestuous love towards him, to the point that tries to drive away the other girls who are interested in him, as well as proclaiming she wishes to bear her brother's child.

In the anime/manga To Love-Ru, it is often highly suggested that Mikan Yuuki has feelings beyond sisterly affection to her brother, Rito. This was more evident in the OVA, where she even asked if they were not blood related, so he would marry her. In the 5th OVA, when the main female cast is stricken by a pollen that confesses their true feelings, Mikan was infected and almost confessed to Rito that she loves him before being interrupted.

In the anime/manga Tona-Gura!, it is suggested that Marie Kagura has a secret brother complex to her older brother Yuji, with stronger hints later as she becomes jealous of Yuji's and Kazuki's growing relationship

In the manga Super-Dreadnought Girl 4946, Kuumi, despite her usual dark and cold personality towards her brother Makoto, reveals she actually is in love with her brother. Revealed she adopted that personality both as a way to distance him from her, as well as feeling she was nothing more than a hindrance to him while they were children. However, she often shows strong hints of jealousy towards Mana and any other girl that shows interest in him.

In the series They Are My Noble Masters, Both brother and sister Ren and Mihato comment they have brother/sister complex. Also it is often suggested that Shinra regularly "molests" her little sister Miyu due to the fact Shinra cannot resist anything she finds "cute".

In Re:Birth - The Lunatic Taker, Ayaka is known to have a deep love for her younger brother Renji. However, she hides a disturbing yandere personality, and would not hesitate (if anything she finds pleasure in do so) to kill whomever is believed to be a threat to his safety.

In the manga and anime series Magikano, the character Maika displays a brother complex towards her older brother and central protagonist Haruo. She becomes jealous when other girls try to get close to Haruo, and one episode focuses around several other characters trying to figure out why Maika developed a brother complex in the first place.

In the manga version of Kirarin Revolution, a brother expresses intense romantic interest in his twin sister; hinted when he gets jealous at other guys, particularly Hiroto, whom she flirts with and when they came close to kissing in a filming. He even unwillingly teams up with her to try to ruin Kirari's career because it makes his sister happy.

In This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, Kimi has a brother complex towards her older brother, Ryou. She is overprotective of him to the point that she tries to keep Ryou and Akari separated from each other. Elsewhere, Takeru is the object of unrequited love from Mari, his cousin, who is very jealous of Takeru and Hikari's relationship, to the point of verbal and physical violence.

In Sister Princess, all of Wataru's twelve younger sisters have a brother complex for him. While this may seem normal, one sister, Sakuya, has much deeper feelings for him that she gets very jealous of the other sisters and has breakdowns when she thinks Wataru is not getting close enough to her.

In Yosuga no Sora, Haruka, the main character has a fraternal twin sister, Sora, who is deeply jealous of the other girls her brother is interested in, and in the last few episodes of the anime, she seduces him into an incestuous relationship. Because they are blood-siblings, they are ostracized, and eventually leave the village they lived in.

Siblings with no blood relation

A similar theme sometimes explored in both media is pseudo-incest, which is most often depicted as romantic/sexual relationships between step-siblings or adopted siblings. The plot in Marmalade Boy revolves around this theme: step-siblings Miki and Yuu at one point believe they are half-siblings but this turns out to be false and they actually get married in the anime.

In the series Kiss×Sis, the twin sisters Ako and Riko are in love with their step-brother Keita. However they have no blood relations to each other. In one chapter and an OVA episode however, Ako and Riko do experiment with each other to practice for if ever they ended up having a threesome with Keita.

In the anime/manga series Blood Plus, Diva's rape of Riku is technically incest, since Riku is the adopted younger brother of Saya, who is Diva's twin sister. If so, then the Diva's twin daughters, that resulted from the rape, are the somewhat product of incest.

In the series Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!, Nao has a sexual attraction to her brother Shūsuke before it was revealed to her she is adopted. To the point she was completely shocked that she could no longer have the tragic romantic life of incest lovers.

In the manga series Kimi ga Uso o Tsuita, the main character Saki falls in love with her older brother Midori, whom she has recently met, as well as he is in love with her. It is later revealed they are not blood related, and in the end of the manga get married.

In the manga Sugar Family, Yuka is said to have some degree of romantic interest in her step-brother/teacher, Taichi, who has a severe case of sister complex towards her.

In the anime series Da Capo, Jun'ichi is in love with his adopted sister, Nemu, and is pursued by his cousin, Sakura. Since they are not related by blood, they relationship is accepted by their friends. In Da Capo II, it is revealed that the two female main characters, Otome and Yume, are their granddaughters and both are in love with Yoshiyuki, the imaginary son Sakura wished she had with Jun'ichi.

In the manga series Cherry Juice, Otome develops feelings for her step-brother, Minami, who has always loved her. Even their own family and friends encourage them to get married. At the end, they begin dating after confessing.

In the anime and manga series Georgie!, Georgie has been extremely close with her adopted brothers, Abel and Arthur, all their lives. However, the brothers have feelings for her and Georgie eventually realizes that she loves Abel. They have a night together and she moves in with Arthur to give birth to her and Abel's son, whom she named after Abel, after Abel is executed.

In the manga series Flower of Eden, Midori has feelings for her brother, Tokio. However, he admits that they are actually step-siblings and he confesses his love to her. His family, who hates Midori and blames her for their parents' death, try to separate them. But at the end, they marry when his family understands what makes Tokio happy.

In the manga series Kiken Junai D.N.A, Ami develops feelings for her brother, Chihiro, even though she knows it's wrong. However, Chihiro admits that he is actually her adopted brother and they can have a relationship. At the end, they are married and have a daughter.

In a manga one-shot, Suki to Ienai, Shiina is in love with her adopted brother, Kiri. She keeps this and his adoption a secret, but he later admits that he knew of the adoption all along and confesses his love to her.

In the manga series Ano Koro ni Aitai, after Yuzuru found out that her older brother, Fuyuhisa, is adopted, she tries very hard to forget her feelings for him, but couldn't.

In the manga series, Desire Climax, Mio is heavily pursued by her younger brother, Hina, who even tries to rape her and tries seduce her boyfriend, Shoei. She later begins to suspect that Shoei is her half-brother when she thinks her mother had an affair with his father. However, it turns out that neither Shoei and Hina are her brothers, but are half-brothers themselves (they have the same father).

In the series, Happy World!, Elle comes to live with Takeshi as his step-sister. However, as time goes by, they begin to fall in love with each other, despite her being an angel and he being human. At the end, they have a daughter named Prayer. However, Prayer is not Takeshi's child biologically because she was hatched from an angel's egg and was adopted by him.

In True Tears, Shin'ichiro is in love with his adopted sister, Hitomi. However, because she was told by his mother that he is her borther, she keeps her feelings for him suppressed, even though she wants to be with him. However, she does eventually learn that it was a lie and they begin a relationship.

In Yoru Made Matenai, Haruka and her step-brother, Tsukasa, have been in love with each other since they began living under the same roof and began their intimate relationship at age 12.

In Oniichan Love, Sumire has feelings for her older step-brother, Kon, who returns her feelings, even though not until the very end due to their status as siblings by marriage.

In the series, Mamotte Lollipop, Ichi was in love with his step-sister, Sarasa, in his young teens. However, she never returned his feelings and ended up marrying Zero's older brother, and he does eventually get over her to make her happy.

In the manhwa series, Forbidden Kiss, Haeun falls in love with her step-brother Shin, who has loved her ever since he first met her. After repeated denials and initial rejection from their parents, they become a couple.

Cousin couples

In anime and manga, cousin coupling is very common, this because cousin marriages are not only not incestuous, but actually have been desirable in Japan.

In the anime and manga series Elfen Lied, Kohta and his first cousin, Yuka, had been extremely close as children and eventually develop a romantic relationship as teenagers. At the end, they marry and have a daughter, Nyu, who was named after Kohta's first love.

In the series Black Butler, Ciel is engaged to his first cousin, Elizabeth. While he is not completely open about his feelings for her, he cares deeply for her and feels it is his duty to protect her. She, on the other hand, is more open about her feelings for him and is always trying her hardest to make Ciel smile more.

Fruits Basket involved incest between several of the members of the zodiac. It consists of mainly cousin relationships and one case of an affair between a nephew and aunt by marriage.

In Kokoro wo Hadaka ni Shite, Mina and her cousin, Yukiya, have romantic feelings for each other.

In Kodomo no Jikan, Rin's mother, Aki, was in a romantic relationship with her first cousin, Reiji, who became a father figure to Rin. After Aki's death, Reiji took custody of Rin and seems to be projecting his feelings for Aki to Rin, as he gets jealous over Daisuke and is possessive of her.

Other examples

Sometimes, the fantasy elements makes it very difficult to track the exact relationship between the characters. In the manga version of Card Captor Sakura, it is revealed that Sakura and her love interest, Syaoran, are related in some way. Syaoran's ancestor, Clow Reed, had reincarnated himself into two people when he died: one into a boy named Eriol and another into Sakura's father. In Tsubasa Chronicle, Sakura and Syaoran's son, Tsubasa, develops feelings for his mother's counterpart, Princess Sakura, who returns his feelings. It is also specultated that Sakura's second cousin, Tomoyo, has feelings for her and Syaoran is heavily pursued by his first cousin, Meiling, who proclaims herself as his fiancée.

Similarly, in the series Kamichama Karin, Karin begins to suspect that her love interest, Kazune, is her half-brother after finding out that they have the same picture of their parents. However, this turns out to be false when Kazune reveals that he is his father's clone and she is his wife turned back into a child and that his cousin, Himeka, who had feelings for Kazune, is their daughter. In Kamichama Karin Chu, it is revealed that they will marry and Suzune is their son from the future.

In the manga Ai to Himemoto, Mao has had romantic feelings towards her uncle, Jin, ever since she went to live with him. However, she finds out they are not blood-related and begin a relationship. At the end, they are married and have two children.

In the manga version of Pita-Ten, Kotarou discovers that his first crush, Shia, is actually his great-grandmother who is a demon in a permanently young body.

In the manga version of Kodocha, it is said that Sana's biological parents were uncle and niece.

In the series, Crimson Climax, Ryo develops feelings for her cousin, Hotaruko. She later has sexual relations with a man named Mizuno. Hotaruko was raped by Bungo, who is revealed to be her uncle. Near the end, it is revealed that Hotaruko is not Ryo's cousin but is her mother and Mizuno is Hotaruko's twin brother. It is also presumed that Ryo is the product of incest between Hotaruko and Mizuno because it was said that if the twins had not been born, Ryo would not have been born.

Adult/children incest

In the manga series Sankarea, it is highly suggested that Danichirou Sanka has a disturbing incestuous love towards his daughter Rea, such as taking photos of her naked and wishing to kill Chihiro Furuya under the belief he "stole" his daughter from him. The maids even rumor that his wife sleeps with other men because of her husband's attraction to their daughter.

In the series Kaze to Ki no Uta, Gilbert is physically, emotionally, and sexually abused by his father, Auguste, who poses as his uncle. Auguste, who is interested in making Gilbert as his own personal pet, can be kind to Gilbert at one time and then be cruel in another. His influence is so strong that Gilbert actually believes they are in love.

Hentai

Incest is also a common theme in hentai manga and anime; there, its treatment ranges from lighthearted to serious, and can go as far as mixing the theme with controversial sub-genres such as ero guro. In Juan Gotoh's Boys Empire, Makoto Tamura, who appears 12 years old, impregnates his same age girlfriend Hitomi, his older sister Mina, and his mother Umeko.

In the manga Aki Sora, Aki is in love with her little brother, Sora, and is later able to persuade him into a sexual relationship, though he often considers breaking it off due to the fact he cannot see a future with this relationship. In the final chapter, they compromise and end their forbidden relationship. Later on in the manga he is repeatedly forced to have sex with his twin sister Nami. It is later discovered that their parents had been brother and sister.

Papa to Kiss in the Dark centers around a 15 year old boy having an incestuous relationship with his father, who is later revealed to be his uncle.

Yaoi

Incest is also a theme used in yaoi and shonen ai manga. Apart from the previously mentioned Kaze to Ki no Uta, examples include Love Prism by Asami Tojo and Uso to Kiss by Masara Minase.

Film

Sibling incest

Sweet Smell of Success (1957), The treacherous newspaper columnist J. J. Hunsecker (played by Burt Lancaster), has repressed incestuous feelings for his younger sister, Susan. Although not stated during the film, J. J.'s feelings are implied by several things. Such as him consistently touching Susan in borderline-inappropriate ways, keeping an 8×11 photograph of her (and only one of her) on his desk and (of course) his refusal to let Susan marry or even date other men.

Bunny Lake is Missing (1965) An incestuous relationship is implied between the two siblings, Steven ('Stevie') and Ann Lake. But the possessive Steven, furious at Ann's daughter, Bunny, for stealing his sister's loving attention, kidnaps the child with intentions to kill her.

Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), when Anne Boleyn is on trial for treason by adultery, her own brother (among many others) is accused of being her lover. This theme is also used in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), where Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman), in pure desperation to be with child, asks her own brother George (Jim Sturgess) to have sex with her. At first, George agrees for the sake of Anne's safety, but as they prepare, they both realize they cannot go through with it. They are both later charged with incest, and although innocent, they are both sentenced to death.

Incest is also a main plot device in the movie Caligula (1979), in which the title character (Malcolm McDowell) has sexual relations with his sisters.

In Excalibur (1981) Mordred is Arthur's illegitimate son born by his half-sister Morgause.

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 in order to live up to his family's werecat heritage.

Scarface (1983), Gina Montana, claims that her older brother, Tony, has incestuous feelings for her after he kills her husband, Manny. However, whether Tony actually had these desires is left up to the viewer.

In the film adaptation of 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 having sex, they move on a strictly platonic relationship.

In the film adaptation of Flowers in the Attic (1987), Cathy shares a close bond with her older brother, Chris, that is hinted to be incestuous, but not shown, while they are imprisoned in the attic with their siblings.

In the Channel 4 film Close My Eyes (1991), a brother and sister (Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves) embark on a passionate but incestuous love affair. In this film there are a few sexual scenes between the siblings.

The Cement Garden (1993), after the death of their mother, the siblings Jack and Julie begin an incestuous relationship.

In The Crow (1994), Top Dollar, the main antagonist, and his half sister, Myca, are also lovers which is revealed in the scene when Top Dollar holds a meeting with his associates where they discuss new plans for their Devil's Night criminal activities.

In Angels & Insects (1996), the hero discovers that his wife has been participating in an incestuous affair with her brother which began when they were young, and that all of his children are in fact not his own, but rather the product of the incestuous union.

The 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).

The film Kickboxing Academy (1997) features real life brothers and sisters Christopher Khayman Lee and Chyler Leigh who kissed each other on the set with a french kiss. Christopher Lee was 18 years old at the time while his sister was 14 years old at the time.

The Devil's Advocate (1997) features two scenes where Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) fantasizes about having sex with Christabella (Connie Nielsen), who is revealed to be his half-sister towards the climax.

Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) stars Julien (Ewen Bremner) and his disturbing life and family. Toward the end of the film it is revealed that his sister Pearl (Chloë Sevigny) is pregnant as a result of an incestuous act between the two of them.

In Ridley Scott's film, Gladiator (2000), the new Emperor Commodus is in love with his sister Lucilla, though she does not return his affections in that way.

In L.I.E (2001) a boy's friend has an incestuous relationship with his sister during a time when they are all discovering their sexuality.

In the 2003 film The Dreamers, fraternal twins Théo (Louis Garrel) and Isabelle (Eva Green) have an incestuous relationship.

The 2004 motion picture Eurotrip includes a 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.

In the 2006 film The Hamiltons, Wendell and his twin sister, Darlene, have an incestuous relationship and share it openly.

La Coupure (2006) (French-Canadian) is a film about a brother and his sister in love since their adolescent years and their struggle to end their incestuous relationship.

The comedy Blades of Glory (2007) features a pair of brother-sister figure skaters who are revealed to be lovers. They were played by Will Arnett and Amy Poehler, who are married in real life.

In Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) harbors romantic feelings for his twin sister, princess Nuala (Anna Walton). It is unclear whether she returns the sentiment, or ever returned those feelings in the past. As commented by Goss in an interview, "There is an incestuous relationship that's not maybe overly obvious to everybody, but some people hopefully will pick up on the fact, certainly from my direction towards her."

Incest between same-sex siblings

A case of consensual incest between adult sisters Christine and Lea (Joely Richardson and Jodhi May) is portrayed in the English film Sister My Sister (1994), which is based on a true story.

In the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, the singer, Curt Wilde, allegedly had an incestuous relationship with his older brother when he was 13. His parents had Wilde start shock treatments to "fry the fairy clean out of him".

Harry + Max (2004) features an incestuous relationship between two teen idol brothers.

In Starcrossed (2005), Darren (J. B. Ghuman, Jr.) and Connor (Marshall Allman) are two brothers who, as teenagers, realize that the feelings they have for each other are not just those of brothers.

Relationship unknown

Sometimes, two characters do not know about their blood relationship when their enter a sexual or romantic relationship.

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.

In Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), a prince and his half-sister unknowingly enter into an incestuous relationship. There is also an instance between a woman and her stepson.

Non-consensual incest

In the 2001 film The Shipping News, based on E. Annie Proulx's 1993 novel of the same name, it is revealed that Agnis Hamm was raped by her 15-year-old half-brother Guy Quoyle when she was 12 and terminated the resulting pregnancy.

In Murali K. Thalluri's film 2:37 (2006), High school student, Melody, is raped and impregnated by her brother, Marcus.

In Triloquist (2008), Angelina is raped by her psychotic brother Nobert, resulting in the birth of a child.

In Daniel & Ana (2009) Daniel and Ana Torres are kidnapped and forced to have sex while being videotaped. After being released they must return to their lives and family home as if nothing happened. Daniel unable to cope or speak to anyone about his feelings, and Ana going ahead with the marriage to her fiance, culminates in Daniel raping Ana.

Siblings with no blood relation

The Unforgiven (1960), Ben Zachary (Burt Lancaster) represses his romantic feelings for his adopted sister, Rachel (Audrey Hepburn), although Rachel sees no problem with their relationship since they are not blood relatives.

The film Clueless (1995) concludes with former step siblings Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and Josh (Paul Rudd), getting together at her teacher's wedding. Cher points out early on in the movie that her father was quote "hardly even married to the woman(Josh's Mom), and that was five years ago!"

The film Cruel Intentions (1999) and to a lesser extent, the film it is based on, Dangerous Liaisons (1988), features a quasi-incestuous 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 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.

The Ballad of Jack and Rose features a scene in which step-siblings Rose and Thaddius ( played by Camilla Belle and Paul Dano respectively) engage in sexual intercourse, a fact which Rose parades in front of her father later on in the film.

Make-believe incest

In the 2001 film Say It Isn't So, while searching for his birth mother, a man (Chris Klein) is deceived into believing his girlfriend (Heather Graham) is his sister.

In the 2001 film Joe Dirt, a hillbilly girl Joe made love to seems, for a while, to be his sister. Having shared almost the same background it is, however, revealed later that she is not in fact related. But a scene is shown in humor for the audience where Joe Dirt is making love to the girl again, but enjoying it only because he wants her to be his sister. Shouting over and over again in passion: "You're my sister". However, Joe immediately commented that never happened and only stated so as a joke to the audience.

In Molly an autistic woman tells her brother she is attracted to him and asks him to marry her, not understanding this would be incest. He then explains to her that siblings can't get married and the dangers of inbreeding.

Parent/children incest

Father/daughter incest

A notable example of censorship in this area surfaces in Kings Row (1942). While the relationship is explicit in Henry Bellamann's best-selling 1940 novel of the same name, Joseph Breen, director of the Production Code Authority and his superior, Will H. Hays, first president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America forbade clearly showing that Dr. Tower (Claude Rains) commits incest with his daughter Cassandra (Betty Field) in the film.

In 1967, The Man Who Fell to Earth was released, which features a sex scene where an actress plays with the penis of Rip Torn's character, Nathan Bryce, and speaks into it like a microphone while stating, "you're not a thing like my father."

Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974) features father-daughter incest, resulting in the daughter giving birth to her own half-sister.

In Stay As You Are (1978), a girl (Nastassja Kinski) falls in love with a man (Marcello Mastroianni) who may be her father.

In the Mexican film Angel de Fuego, after his mother left her circus-born Alma starts an affair with her father, has sex with him and becomes impregnated by him.

In Butterfly (Matt Cimber, 1982), a miner living in the Nevada desert, who has not seen his daughter for years, is confronted then seduced by his now sexy and troubling teenage child, while struggling against his own reluctance as well as the 1937 rural society.

Based on a true story, the 1993 TV film Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story stars (Melissa Gilbert) playing the role as Shari Karney, an incest victim who was sexually abused by her father.

In Forrest Gump (1994), it is heavily implied, though never outright stated, that the character Jenny Curran and her sisters (who are never seen) are sexually abused by their widowed father. Forrest Gump, who narrates throughout the film, 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.

In the 1997 film U Turn, Grace (Jennifer Lopez) and Jake (Nick Nolte) are initially thought to be husband and wife. Towards the climax of the film however it is revealed that after the death of her mother, Grace married her father Jake and had been having sex with him.

Wicked (1998), starring Julia Stiles and William R. Moses, features an incestuous father-daughter relationship.

The 1999 film The Cider House Rules depicts a father-daughter incestuous relationship that results in the daughter's pregnancy.

Tim Roth's 1999 film The War Zone explores the effect of father-daughter incest on a family.

In Girl, Interrupted (2000), a recently released patient of the mental institution, Daisy Randone (Brittany Murphy), is well known to have had an incestuous relationship with her father, which eventually leads her to commit suicide.

The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005), Rose (Camilla Belle) is in love with her father, Jack (Daniel Day-Lewis), although he is unable to accept his romantic feelings for her.

In The Quiet (2005), A young woman (Camilla Belle) discovers an incestuous relationship between her God-father (Martin Donovan) and his daughter (Elisha Cuthbert).

In Madeinusa (2006), The Mayor of an indigenous community lusts after his 14 year old daughter and has off screen sex with her in the days between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the days when his village believes God is dead and cannot see what is happening in the world.

In Burning Palms (2010), One of the short stories features a woman who meets her fiance's 15 year old daughter. The father and daughter seem to have an incestuous relationship from the way they touch and talk to each other. It is not known whether or not they actually have committed incest.

Mother/son incest

In the political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), the character Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) has an incestuous relationship with his mother (who had an incestuous affair with her father) while in his hypnotized state. One of the film's most notable scenes is one which involves the two of them sharing a passionate kiss. Their relationship is shown more explicitly in the 2004 remake.

In the movie The Damned (1969), by Luchino Visconti, the deviant young character of Martin (played by Helmut Berger) besides having paedophilian tendencies, forces his mother Sophie (played by Ingrid Thulin) into having a sexual intercourse with him.

My Lover My Son (1970), by John Newland, in which the 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.

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 her son off of drugs result in an incestuous relationship with the boy.

The 1992 horror film Sleepwalkers, the energy vampires, Charles and his mother, Mary maintain an incestuous relationship. Although the reason remains unexplained, it may be the simple fact that they have lived so long with each other.

The Australian film Bad Boy Bubby (1993) depicts an incestuous relationship between a mother and her adult son, who has never been outside his mother's house in his life.

The film Spanking the Monkey (1994) depicts a situation in which mother-son incest takes place, leading the latter to attempt suicide.

The French film La Petite Lili (2005) portrays a fictional case of incipient consensual mother-son incest between independent adults.

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.

Savage Grace (2007), based on the true story of the dysfunctional, incestuous relationship between heiress Barbara Daly Baekeland and her son Antony.

Stepparents/stepchildren incest

In 1962's Lolita (and its 1997 remake), a man and his stepdaughter have a sexual relationship.

In the French film Beau-père (1981) after the sudden death of his wife, Remy (Patrick Dewaere), is forced to take care of his 14-year-old stepdaughter (Ariel Besse) who, unbeknownst to him, has fallen in love with him. He finally sucumbs to the girls insinuations, move out of town and start living as a couple.

The 2006 film Mini's First Time features a sexual relationship between the main character, Mini, and her stepfather, Martin.

In the Italian film My Father's Wife, (also in English) a woman frustrated with her husband's infidelity and her failing sexual life starts having sex with her stepson. Eventually, the woman is killed by her husband.

Mixed

Guy Maddin's film Careful (1992) features one character, Johann, lusting after his mother and another character, Klara, who is attracted to her father (who lusts after his other daughter)

In The King, a 2005 film, the main character has a sexual relationship with his pastor's daughter, even gets her pregnant. It is later revealed that he is the product of incest between the pastor and his mother, making the daughter his sister and niece

In Pedro Almodóvar's 2006 film Volver, a man lusts after his stepdaughter, who is in fact the product of incest between her mother and her mother's father.

Make-believe incest

Little Boy Blue (1997) features what at first appears to be a non-consensual incestuous relationship between a mother, Kate (Nastassja Kinski), and her son, Jimmy (Ryan Phillipe). Kate's psychotic husband Ray (John Savage) repeatedly forces Kate and teenaged Jimmy to have sex, often at gunpoint, while he watches. Ray, whom Jimmy believes to be his father, had been rendered impotent years earlier by a castrating war wound and violently commands Kate and Jimmy to provide these vicarious thrills. Jimmy's situation is further complicated by two children he has fathered with the woman he believes to be his mother. However, it is later revealed that Jimmy is not really related to Kate or Ray when Jimmy discovers that Ray kidnapped him when he was only an infant.

Incestuous families

The American horror films The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original series 1974–1994 and remake series 2003–2006), and Wrong Turn (2003) feature villains who are the product of inbreeding.

In the musical The Rocky Horror Show and the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Riff Raff (Richard O'Brien) and Magenta (Patricia Quinn) are revealed to be brother and sister who have a sexual relationship. In the unproduced sequel Revenge of the Old Queen, it is implied that Dr. Frank-N-Furter had been incestuously involved with his own mother, the "Old Queen" of the planet Transsexual (in the galaxy of Transylvania); she later dies in the throes of seducing her own grandson. The sequel to Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a musical called Shock Treatment which meets Brad and Janet some time after their adventure with Frank 'n' Furter. In this film, brother and sister Cosmo and Nation McKinley are clearly displayed as having a sexual relationship. The film even includes a bedroom scene between the two during the song 'Lullaby'. These two siblings are, as in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, played by Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn.

The pornographic Taboo film series of the 1980s deal exclusively with incest, including mother/son, brother/sister and father/daughter.

In the 2001 film Kate & Leopold, Stuart Bessers' (Liev Schreiber) ex-girlfriend Kate McKay (Meg Ryan) is revealed to be his close ancestor, as she is destined to travel back in time to marry another of Stuart's ancestors, Leopold (Hugh Jackman).

In the 2004 film, Van Helsing, Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) intends to make a young, Gypsy princess, Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), his newest bride, both of them knowing that Dracula is one of Anna's ancestors.

Park Chan-Wook's Oldboy (2003) features an instance of brother-sister incest as well as father-daughter incest, both resulting in possible pregnancies.

The 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan features Borat Sagdiyev as an incestuous journalist, also featuring his whole village in Kazakhstan living under an incestuous way of life.

Cousin incest

The practice of cousin incest remains legal in many USA states today as well as many countries, where cousin marriage is allowed.

In Gone with the Wind (1939), two first cousins marry; however this practice was common and widely accepted in the Southern United States in the 19th century.

In The Godfather (1972), two first cousins marry.

The Portrait of a Lady (1996), Isabel Archer (Nicole Kidman) and her cousin, Ralph (Martin Donovan) share a close friendship until, upon Ralph's deathbed, they each admit to being in love with the other (although this may not have been considered incest at the time the film is set). One the films most memorable scenes is an interpolated dream sequence in which Isabel has an erotic fantasy involving her cousin.

In Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion (1997), it is implied that the character Michelle lost her virginity to a cousin.

Mean Girls (2004), Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried), the ditsy one of the plastics, revealed that she made out with her first cousin, not understanding that first cousins are directly related.

In the South Korean film Maundy Thursday (2006), Yu-jeong (Lee Na-young) reveals that she was raped at the age of 15 by her older cousin.

Kissing Cousins (2008), starring Samrat Chakrabarti and Rebecca Hazlewood, A "relatively" romantic comedy about a professional heartbreaker (and cynical bachelor) who teams up with his attractive cousin from the UK in order to fool his friends into believing he is capable of a relationship.

In The Blue Lagoon (1980), two cousins grow up as lovers and have a child after being marooned on an island for many years.

Other

In the 2003 Chilean film Sexo con Amor, a man has sex with his niece atop a washing machine.

In the film Hannibal Rising (2007), a young Hannibal Lecter (Gaspard Ulliel) falls in love with his aunt, Lady Murasaki (Gong Li) and enters into a mild incestuous relationship with her (although, as they are not biologically related, this may not truly be incest).

The well known Marathi film Gharkul features an incestuous relationship.

Television

Several kinds of incest

The 1980s American soap opera Dynasty featured a storyline whereby Fallon Colby and Adam Carrington become attracted to one another, eventually sharing a kiss, not realising that they were in fact sister and brother. Fallon would also go on to marry and divorce two of her cousins, Myles and Jeff Colby.

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 hereditary angioedema inherited from their father. (Episode 3x05, Fools for Love). In the episode 2x13, Skin Deep; a teenage supermodel confesses to having an incestuous relationship with her father simply to get what she wants.

In The Simpsons, Springfield's rival town Shelbyville was founded specifically to allow men to marry their cousins because, according to Shelbyville Manhattan, the founder of the city, "they're so attractive". There was also the relationship between Cletus Spuckler and his wife Brandine, who may be siblings, mother and son, or even father and daughter.

The CW television series Supernatural stars two brothers who are mistaken for lovers on occasion. In the season 4 episode "The Monster at the End of This Book", fans of a fictional Supernatural book series are revealed to have a subgroup who believe the brothers to also be lovers (which is also true of fans of the TV show itself; this phenomenon is called "Wincest" by real-life fans). In other episode, Family Remains,they find a wild girl and a wild boy living in secret room under a house, and they come from a relationship of one father and his daughter.

Incest is sometimes added to the plot of episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In the episode "Blood Drops" (1.07), a young girl is sexually abused by her father, who is also her grandfather. Her mother is also her half-sister. The episode "Committed" (5.21), portrays mother-son incest. In "Table Stakes" (1.15), a brother and sister fake being a couple to avoid the authorities; they even allow themselves to be caught making love by the CSIs. In "Burden of Proof", the Father raped his daughter as she reminded him of her mother back when she was younger, and the father killed the soon to be step father after she told him while trying to frame him for molesting her.

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 Bluth (Portia de Rossi) and her nephew George Michael also sing the song in the same episode, also not realizing the sexual content. Lindsay 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 (Tony Hale), live together, even though Buster is in his mid-30s and they have a comedic codependent relationship, although it is not sexual.

In HBO's Rome, Octavia seduces her brother Octavian in the hopes of learning some of his secrets during pillow-talk, and Octavian is once accused of having an affair with his great uncle, Julius Caesar.

Sibling incest

Incest features heavily into the plot of a second season episode of the NBC medical drama ER, titled "The Secret Sharer" (airdate: 16 November 1995). A seventeen year-old girl named Julia (Miriam Reichmeister) is brought in after a suicide attempt. She at first resists all attempts at treatment and will not talk about the reason for trying to take her own life. As the episode progresses, however, the reason for her bizarre behaviour is revealed: following the death of their mother, the girl's attempts to comfort her younger teenage brother Kyle (Austin O'Brien), who was hit particularly hard by the loss, eventually resulted in a sexual encounter between the two and she is now pregnant with his child.

The British soap opera Brookside ran a controversial storyline featuring consensual incestuous sex between the two sibling characters, Nat and Georgia Simpson, in the 1990s.

In "The Killings at Badger's Drift", an episode of the British television series Midsomer Murders, an old woman discovers a brother and sister in an incestuous relationship.

The hit television series Prison Break (2005) portrays the character Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell (Robert Knepper) as the product of incestuous rape, specifically that of his Down's Syndrome-afflicted aunt by his father; 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, Quentin Costa (Bruno Campos) and Kit McGraw (Rhona Mitra) 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 FX Network's comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the McPoyle brothers are heavily "implied" to have an incestuous relationship with each other and are explicitly seen publicly tongue kissing their deaf-mute sister.

The British soap Family Affairs featured a storyline involving Gavin and Polly Arnold, a brother and sister in a consensual incestuous relationship.

I, Claudius was a 1976 BBC Television adaptation of Robert Graves's I, Claudius and Claudius the God. In it, the sordid lives of the Caesars are detailed including the historical incestuous relationship between Caligula and his sister Drusilla.

In Degrassi Takes Manhattan, a drunk Fiona gets jealous when she sees her twin brother Declan making out with his girlfriend Holly J. at a party. She grabs Declan and pulls him into the middle of the room and kisses him.

In the Coming Up series for the UK's Channel 4 a woman who is obsessed with breaking social taboos seduces her brother during the 7/7 bombings in London. They eventually part ways as they realize they cannot be a normal couple.

In the Family Guy "Hannah Banana", Meg Griffin reveals that she and her brother, Chris Griffin, practice kissing on each other. Another instance is in the recent episode "Halloween on Spooner Street", siblings Meg and Chris Griffin unknowingly play Seven minutes in heaven at a Halloween party. Upon finding out each other's identities, they are shocked and disgusted, but in a later scene they are proud of themselves for finally "hooking up" with someone.

In American Dad, we see an explicit example in the episode "Stannie Get your Gun". After Steve stole Roger's cookie, in revenge, Roger convinces Steve that he was adopted (and later, that he was kidnapped by his "fake" parents). Then, Steve tells Hayley, his big sister, that he is going to do "something they both wanted to do for years", and then, he French kisses Hayley passionatly. So: Steve is in love with Hayley, but he respects the line between brothers and sisters. In a later episode Steve masturbates to a nude portrait of Hayley done by Roger (though he only painted from the chin down), becoming obsessed with it. However he became horrified upon discovering it was of his sister.

Wizards of Waverly Place is known for the strong incestuous subtext between Justin and Alex Russo (the pairing named 'Jalex' by fan fiction writers). In the first two seasons for example, their bodies end up flirting with each other the two times they have other people's brains in them, their mother tells to Alex she should date Justin (because she forgot who he was), they almost never like the other one boyfriend/girlfriend, they hug tenderly every few episodes (something they rarely do with other people), and they spend most of their time together even if they pretend to hate each other. Originally they were supposed to be good friends before the writers changed them to brother and sister (some of the original lines remained, which is where the subtext originates).

Half-siblings incest

A recent Hollyoaks plot has dealt with incest between two members of the Ashworth family, Rhys Ashworth and his half-sister Beth Clement. They did not know they were half brother and sister when they began seeing each other, upon finding out they were related when their dad died, they tried to halt the relationship, but in the end could not stay away despite Rhys moving into a relationship with Mercedes McQueen and Beth moving into a relationship with Rhys' best friend, Gilly Roach. When Beth is planning to be married to Gilly, they decide they must leave Hollyoaks, as they cannot end their relationship and see no other way to be together.

In the German television soap opera Alles was zählt, one of the main characters Jennifer Steinkamp had a secret affair with her half-brother Maximilian.

In British soap opera Emmerdale, characters Ryan and Maisie were in a romantic and sexual relationship until it was revealed that they shared the same father.

In the CBS horror series Harper's Island, it is revealed in the last episode that main characters Abby Mills and Henry Dunn are half siblings, sharing the same mother even though the mother gave Henry up for adoption. Henry learned of this from his biological father and is still in love with Abby. However, when Abby finds out, she calls him sick and wants to leave him.

Relationship unknown

In the CSI: Miami episode "Divorce Party", two teens who are in love and having a child discover they are actually half brother and sister when they figure out they have the same father.

Siblings with no blood relation

The ABC television drama Lost features two step-siblings, Boone and Shannon, who engaged in an incestuous encounter.

In the 2009 remake of Melrose Place, there was a storyline of Violet (Ashlee Simpson) having a relationship with her stepbrother, Levi. Both adopted into the same family, they had a romance during high school and had plans to run away together. However, Violet left their family, stealing money as well, and ended their relationship.

Make-believe incest

In ABC's Ugly Betty, Amanda Sommers and Daniel Meade, sexual lovers, briefly panic when they believe Amanda's father is Bradford Meade (also Daniel's father). However, this proves not to be the case, much to the relief of both Daniel and Amanda.

In Law and Order: SVU episode Repression, Megan Ramsey, after having a session with her therapist. She reveals that she was raped by her father when she was fifteen. However, it is later revealed this was all just a delusion brought up by a suggestive state in a Sodium Pentothal session with her therapist, and in fact she was still a virgin.

Parent/children incest

Father/daughter incest

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.

In the 2006 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit named "Taboo", a young woman seduces and is impregnated by her father. The franchise touched again the issue in the 2009 episode of Law & Order: CI named "Family Values". Paul Devildis develops an incestuous attraction towards his daughter Kathy, which due to his deep religious beliefs makes him believe everyone else as well is attracted to her in a lustful way and therefore sinners. In turn he goes on a killing spree under the belief he is doing god's work.

In Twin Peaks, David Lynch's 1990–91 cult hit, seventeen year-old Laura Palmer, whose brutal murder causes the events depicted in the series to unfold, has been sexually abused on a regular basis by a demonic entity referred to as Bob, who has taken possession of her father Leland.

A storyline arc at the end of Melrose Place's second season (which concluded early in the third) dealt with Alison Parker (Courtney Thorne-Smith) and her sister Meredith being molested by their father when they were children.

The Storyteller episode Sapsorrow features a situation where a daughter is forced to engagement with her father.

In the Breakout Kings episode Out of the Mouths of Babes, a young girl named Tess is revealed to have been sexually abused by her father, but blamed the school councilor out of fear.

Mother/son incest

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.

In the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its revealed that after Spike bit his own mother, she was so overwhelmed with the power that she tried to rid herself of him. Spike tried to reason with her, but his mother grew so angry that she insinuated that Spike had always had a sexual fascination with her. She even tried to seduce Spike before he killed her.

In the NCIS episode "Meat Puzzle", a killer named Vincent Hanlan (Morgan Weisser) is convicted of the rape and murder of a female Navy Lieutenant but Ducky notes Vincent was unable to rape the woman as he was impotent and he beat her to death in a rage. Later Vincent's brother implies Vincent and their mother have a consensual sexual relationship ("They have lots of secrets, terrible secrets with each other") This is also implied when his mother, Mary (Lee Garlington) caresses Vincent's face and winks at him in a seductive way

In season 4 of Smallville, it is implied that Jason Teague (Jensen Ackles) is in a relationship with his mother, Genevieve (Jane Seymour); this is hinted at by Lionel Luthor (John Glover) many times.

Incestuous families

The FOX television drama The X-Files featured an episode, "Home", in which a family in the real Pennsylvania town of Home had pursued incestuous relationships for several generations and, as a result, developed genetic deformities. The episode received a TV-MA rating and was banned from replaying for years.

Cousin incest

In an episode of the FOX sitcom That '70s Show entitled "Eric's Hot Cousin", Eric Forman (Topher Grace) is tricked into thinking that he is not related to his cousin, whom he desires but only learns the truth as he is embarrassed in front of his parents.

In an episode of Seinfeld named "The Junk Mail", George Costanza convinces his cousin to start a romantic relationship with him. However, he was not actually interested in her; he simply wanted to anger his father (although she was into it, even referring to herself as his girlfriend). They never have sex, however.

In the 8th season of the popular sitcom Friends Ross was shown sexually attracted to his cousin Denise Richards.

In The Big Bang Theory episode "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency", Howard Wolowitz reveals he lost his virginity to his second cousin at his uncle's funeral.

Other kinds of incest

EastEnders also featured a storyline between Zoe Slater, Kat Slater and Harry Slater. Zoe discovered Kat who she thought was her sister is actually her mother who had been sexually abused by her uncle Harry resulting in her becoming pregnant with Zoe.

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 Philip J. Fry meets his grandfather, Enos. Professor Farnsworth then warns Fry not to interfere with anything lest he disrupt his own timeline. In an attempt to prevent his grandfather's death, however, Fry 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 afterward, 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.

In the TV series Malcolm in the Middle episode College Recruiters, Reese's Russian bride claimed that the man she was having sex with was her brother, though this was an obvious lie to cover up her affair.

Popular music

One of the first incest lines was a song called "The End" by psychedelic rock band The Doors, in which Jim Morrison sings, "Father/ Yes son?/ I want to kill you/ Mother, I want to... (fuck you),"

In his classic song for the Flamin' Groovies' 1970 album "Flamingo", Roy Loney's song "Second Cousin" describes a man's desire to marry his second cousin ("with the kind of body on her make a bald man tear his hair!") despite the opposition of their families.

Prince's groundbreakingly explicit album Dirty Mind contains the song "Sister", an ode to incest.

British musician Kate Bush's song "The Kick Inside" from her 1978 album of the same name depicts an incestuous relationship, pregnancy and 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"

Southern Californian Pop Punk 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.

The song "Weakest Moments" by American rock musician John Mellencamp contains the line "Well, I hear you downstairs/ you're fooling around/ with your father's brother/ and your mother's gown".

The song "Don't Wake The Baby" by Jack Off Jill is also apparently about father-daughter incest.

American rock band Giant Drag 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", "Nimrod's Son", "Break My Body", and "Broken Face".

The German metal band Rammstein touches on incest in “Spiel mit mir”, ("Play with me"), featuring an incestuous relationship between brothers. 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.

The song "Little Sister" by Queens of the Stone Age deals with what can be seen as a brother-sister relationship.

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", for the theory that the song was about incestuous rape, although cursory inspection of the lyrics reveals that the song actually refers to the singer's girlfriend's mother, who wants to prevent her daughter from seeing the singer.

On his 2003 album Poodle Hat, "Weird Al" Yankovic included a parody of Avril Lavigne's song, "Complicated (Avril Lavigne song)" titled "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 a 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.

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 did not meet Allen until she was eighteen and he thirty-three, 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 eight years and Patricia five, to be served in maximum-security prisons, twenty-five miles apart.

The song "This Love is Fucking Right" by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is about a consensual brother-sister relationship that is both romantic and sexual in nature.

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 stepfather, 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 "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.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut features the song "Uncle Fucka", in which accusations of incest are leveled by Terrance and Phillip.

"Chinese Dunkirk" by the Australian blues/hard rock band, Rose Tattoo, on their 1981 album Assault & Battery contains lyrics that suggest brother-sister incest.

The song "Ark" from the Japanese band Sound Horizon deals with a brother-sister relationship where the sister falls in love and kills her older brother.

The Horrorcore rapper King Gordy talks about smoking crack with and repeatedly raping his sister on the song "This World" in 2009.

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. Similarly, The Prize Fighter Inferno released a song titled "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 the album of the same name, 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, an incest 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.

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. "Island" by Heather Nova, from her album Oyster, deals with a daughter being sexually abused by her father with nowhere to escape.

The song "Amy In The White Coat" by indie rock artist Bright Eyes tells the story of a girl (and her sisters) being molested by her father.

The German thrash metal band Sodom has a song titled "Incest" in his album Agent Orange.

"Family Tree" by the thrash metal band Megadeth, from their album Youthanasia, is about incest between a father and daughter.

"Embryo" by the Japanese band Dir En Grey is about a mother dying and the father raping the daughter. At the end of the song, the girl kills the father and discovers she is pregnant with his child.

The song "Sugar Pain" by the Japanese band The GazettE depicts the struggles of a man who can't tell the difference between platonic and sexual love and ultimately goes insane and rapes his own mother.

The song "The Dark I Know Well" in the 2006 musical Spring Awakening tells of a girl whose father sexually and physically abuses her "You say all you want is just a kiss goodnight/then you hold me and you whisper/ "Child the Lord won't mind"/ It's just you and me,/ Child you are a beauty."

"Royally Fucked" by Mindless Self Indulgence off their "Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy" album has the teller complaining complaining "Mom, Dad, why don't you finger me too?" and how he will "never be loved" because he was not sexually touched by his parents like his sibling was. This song could also be about inbreeding in royal families which had been happening from the 17th to late 18th century. Being royally fucked is being deformed and tainted. "All of them dead now, let me be the same," could be referencing the dead inbred kings/queens of the time.

The song Lemon Incest by Charlotte and Serge Gainsbourg is a song and music video about an incestuous relationship between a father and her daughter. The single cover is a picture of the half-clothed father with his daughter lying across his chest. Considering that father/daughter was the same family tie that the singers shared it caused suspicions that the song may be autobiographical. However, the Gainsbourgs denied these allegations and the song became very popular in France.

In "Janie's Got a Gun" by the band Aerosmith, Janie kills her father after he sexually abuses her.

The Bravery's song "Tragedy Bound" involves a girl abused by her father. (Her daddy was a demon watching her dress./ He shriveled her down, wore her like a crown.)

G Tom Mac's song 'Cry Little Sister' recorded for the movie The Lost Boys, may imply incest between siblings. The song was covered by bands such as Aiden, and BluTengel. Although the literal interpretation hints at incest, It is most commonly interpreted as a metaphor for vampirism.

Video games

Kana: Little Sister is a visual novel game about the relationship that develops between an older brother and his ill younger sister. Depending on the choices made by the player the relationship can develop along traditional brother-sister roles or can become an incestuous relationship. (by the time the brother makes a choice to have sex with her, he discovers she is adopted)

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is a game where Victor Vance's important ally, Phil Cassidy, confesses that he was beaten by his father under the belief that he had sexual attraction for his sister and cousin, which Phil denies. Later on in the game when Vic starts dating Phil's sister, Louise Cassidy-Williams, Phil is fine with that relationship.

In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Dr.Hal "Otacon" Emmerich confessed to his dead step sister Emma that he had an affair with her mother and his step mother, Julie. The affair was what led Hal's father to kill himself by drowning in the family's swimming pool and nearly killed Emma in the process. As a result, Hal left the family, unable to face Emma for not being able to save her. Emma grew to resent Hal in the years that followed, but continued to feel a degree of romantic attraction towards him (even though he admitted that he could never see her as a woman).

In Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, the two "sisters" Therese and Jeanette Voerman are revealed to be the same person: Therese was the original personality, and Jeanette was the one created so that Therese did not have to consciously experience being repeatedly sexually abused by their father. One day, "their" father forced himself on her when Therese was still in control, and she murdered him with a shotgun and was sent to an asylum. There, a Malkavian turned her into a vampire. The resulting supernatural psychosis caused her personality split to worsen, each side becoming a wholly fleshed out consciousness, with "Therese" being cold and repressed, and "Jeanette" getting the hyper-sexuality and Borderline Personality Disorder.

In Resident Evil: Code Veronica, it is implied that Alfred Ashford had a sexual relationship with his sister Alexia Ashford.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, Michael Keane (a.k.a. Saint-Michael), a minor character, is often said by other characters to be born from a incestuous relationship between siblings. This is not confirmed nor denied by Michael himself. Also in Grand Theft Auto IV, It is revealed by Patrick 'Packie' McReary that both he and his older brother Gerald were molested by their father at a young age and he implies that Gerry murdered their father and made it look like suicide.

In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the main villain, historical figure Cesare Borgia has an incestuous relationship with his younger sister Lucrezia, whom is also suggested she was sexually manipulating her father, on the instructions of her brother.

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

• Incest in the Bible
• Incest in folklore
• Incest between twins in popular culture

External links

• [2] – article from old Penthouse number
• Male Voter Incest Poll
• Female Voter Incest Poll
• Male Voter Same Poll in Hindi Language
• Female Voter Same Poll in Hindi Language