NEW YORK — Cosmpolitan magazine says the rising interest in incest-themed porn may be due to mainstream media TV shows and popular culture.
Spotlighting reports from Pornhub and GameLink, Cosmo said incest-themed porn content is trending extremely high on the sites, possibly due to TV shows like "Game of Thrones," "American Horror Story," and "Sons of Anarchy" that “all feature (or featured) very, um, familial relationships within the past few years.”
The report also noted that the genre may also be hot because of people Googling the term, quoting sex therapist Megan Fleming, Ph.D. who said people may be curious or afraid they’re missing out on a popular topic of titillating and taboo conversation.
"But just because people are clicking, that doesn't mean it's erotic to them. Incest porn could very well be the ‘Gangnam Style’ of the porn world — you can't stop watching it out of perverse fascination one week, the next it makes you deeply uncomfortable,” Fleming said.
Incest is even showing up on the mainstream Internet, Cosmo said, pointing to a recent New York Magazine interview with a father-daughter couple that went viral.
The article did point out that the films are not actual incest but rather appeal to the taboo aspect of the genre.
"It's cerebral kink, not an extension of reality," queer filmmaker and performer Courtney Trouble told Cosmo. "It plays into a lot of role play and BDSM scenarios. Most incest porn is not playing off an actual desire to have sex with a family member, but more like experiencing the intimacy and power dynamics inherent in those kinds of family relationships."
Trouble also said “there's a layer of forbidden sex.” “Incest role-play is basically a kink layer-cake.”
Performer Penny Barber had a slightly different take on the content. She believes incest role-play is gaining in popularity because age play is gaining in popularity as a weird wish fulfillment and a way of recapturing “that exciting, awkward, youthful sex you used to have.”
"Most incest role-play porn is made with actors who could be siblings more easily than they could be parent and child. Most sibling porn is made of adults pretending to be teenagers. I'm pushing 30 and I still play a high schooler in a lot of incest role-play porn," Barber said.
