Society’s Reactions

I wanted to share these 2 articles that say something very interesting about social attitudes towards consang couples.

Article 1:

Someone on the KS forum was talking about how consanguinamory is legal in Spain. They said that in recent years two siblings shared their love story ‘on a prime-time TV program and they were applauded.’

Link to the article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3557738/Half-siblings-admit-relationship-Spanish-TV-show.html

Article 2:

This is one I found myself while searching the web. This story dates back several decades and was about a couple of siblings in France. The story was similar in that they both also ‘came out’ on a TV show. This couple also had a biological child together. They received a similarly sympathetic reaction.

Link: http://people.com/archive/jacqueline-and-andre-are-sister-and-brother-and-mom-and-dad-vol-23-no-7/

….
Why this is fascinating:

These two examples are unique because they show that not all societies react negatively. In both countries, consensual incest is legal. I also heard something about how in France when they did a public survey asking how people felt about criminalizing incest again, most people didn’t want to criminalize it. It makes me wonder if the reason people react differently in those countries is because more experimentation happens beneath the surface (due to relaxed laws)... Which means more people in the general populace have some kind of experience with consanguinmory and can therefore relate to those couples.

That’s just my theory.

These articles are a very valuable reminder that when writing stories, Setting matters. The amount of stigma your characters face will depend on the kind of society they are in… not all societies would react the same way, like we’re taught to believe they would. Sympathetic reactions are possible and do happen.