Six Degrees of Incest

Six degrees of incest

Sister comes up with a six-step program to keep everything under total control

Ron Ehrs

"Hi. I'm Brad, and I'm a freshman at State. I have a sister, Liz, who's a sophomore here.

"I'm a pretty average kind of guy, 5'11', okay-looking, an okay student -- mostly B's, an A or two when I get lucky. My big problem is that I'm not doing nearly as well as I would like with women, but it's hard for freshman men anyway, since lots of girls are looking for upper-classmen.

"My sister Liz is a better student than I am. I guess she's pretty okay looking, medium-tall, darkish brown hair, hazel eyes, and a face that is perfectly fine, but she has this thing where her clothing is, well, not exactly Amish, but definitely not chosen to emphasize her body or her sex appeal. And, of course, no makeup. I'm not sure if she's kind of shy, but she doesn't seem to have guys hanging around her all the time like some of the other girls do.

"Liz and I got along okay when we were growing up, but I was more interested in hanging out with my guy friends so we didn't spend that much time together.

"I live in a single room in a house off campus. I mean it would be pretty neat if I had a girlfriend, since I have a lot of privacy, but since I don't, I just have a lot of privacy.

"Liz has a single room in one of the women's dorms. Men aren't allowed in, so I've never seen it. And so far, she's never seen my room either.

"Anyhow, one Sunday night in October, she called me to see if I would be willing to talk to her about a paper she was working on."

* * *

Monday

Liz came over to my room on Monday night. In keeping with her usual conservative vibe, she was wearing a white shirt with a Peter Pan collar buttoned up to the top, and a gray, knee-length skirt.

Other than my bed, there wasn't much furniture in my room besides a bureau, a small desk and an undersized desk chair, so sitting on the bed together was the obvious and most comfortable arrangement.

"It's good to see you Bradley," she said. (Everyone else calls me "Brad" these days, but when I was growing up, my family called me Bradley, and Liz still did.) A lot of brothers and sisters would hug if they hadn't seen each other for a while, but that wasn't Liz's style. "We should see each other more often. We need to do something about that."

Still, in spite of the fact that we hadn't seen each other for a while, she didn't have any small talk. "The reason I wanted to see you is I'm taking a course called Human Behavior and right now we're doing a section on Human Sexuality. We're supposed to write a paper on something related to sexuality, but I'm not exactly an expert on any of that, and I suspect most of the other students know way more than I do. I mean, the closest I came to anything of that sort was when the doctor at the health center put me on the pill as a precaution. She told me, 'If you end up going to a frat party sometime and get drunk and something happens, at least pregnancy isn't one of the things you want to have to worry about.'"

That was certainly a weird idea. Definitely not a scenario I would see Liz ever getting into. Also weird that she would tell me about it.

I think she saw me looking skeptical, but just ignored it. "Since I have so little experience to draw on, I thought I'd pick a topic that didn't depend as much on personal knowledge. So... I decided to write my paper on Sibling Incest. I know it's kind of a strange topic to choose, but I figured it would be better than topics where I would end up sounding like a naive idiot.

"Anyway, I have a few ideas, but I wanted someone to talk to about them, and as far as I can see, you're the best person for me to talk to. No, I don't mean it that way, but I can't see myself spending a lot of time talking with anyone else about this. They would think I was just weird. It's not really a topic that people are all that comfortable with. Including me, of course.

"But since you and I are siblings, and this is about sibling stuff, I figured maybe I could bounce some of these ideas off of you to see if they made sense."

Really? After not having gotten together for all this time, this is what she comes to see me about?

"I guess I kind of understand what you're saying," I said, "but it's not really a topic I know anything about. But whatever, tell me your ideas and I'll tell you what I think. I just don't know how much help I can be."

Liz always liked topics where she could do a lot of research. That was her comfort zone. "Originally, I thought I could just do some online research. I know one big issue is the whole thing about birth defects and inbreeding.

"But another thing I wonder about is how big the problem is anyway. Why is it such a big deal? I haven't been able to find any real statistics about how common incest -- specifically brother/sister incest -- is. Do you have any ideas where I could look to get some numbers on that?"

I could see this was going to be a problem. "I don't think you'll be able to find that. Anywhere. Incest is pretty much the biggest taboo of all, probably even bigger than murder. People who will be perfectly happy telling you when and how they lost their virginity or the people they slept with, or even the times they've cheated, will never, ever talk about any kind of incest they were involved in. Never. You could run an online poll with a guarantee of total anonymity, and people still wouldn't tell you. Nobody trusts any assurances of anonymity when it comes to that. It's too toxic.

"Think about it. A lot of people thought that when Bill Clinton's affair with Gennifer Flowers hit the tabloids, that was the end of his campaign. But he went on to become president. Donald Trump has had every kind of sexual scandal imaginable, and nobody cares. But if anybody had come up with evidence of incest (and Trump seems like he was flirting with it with Ivana) it would be all over.

"So, you will never find any kind of numbers on this. You'll find occasional stories in magazines or lifestyle sections of the paper where people talk about having had a relationship with their sibling, or maybe letters to some sex columnist, but that's strictly anecdotal, and hardly a balanced look at anything. Besides, I think magazines and stuff like 'happy incest' stories, stories where everything is lovey-dovey and works out fine. Stories where it involves abuse or whatever, are really a downer, and who wants to read that?"

Liz looked disturbed at what I was telling her. "I think you're right. Maybe I picked the wrong topic to try to write about."

Now that she had brought it up, however, I realized it was actually a pretty intriguing issue. "One thing about sibling incest is that there is such a huge taboo for this particular kind of behavior. There have been plenty of cultures, and still are, where homosexual behavior of any sort is a huge taboo, but that's been changing, at least in Western countries. But the taboo against sibling incest cuts across pretty much every culture today, and somehow seems even worse than adultery or other forms of sexual misbehavior.

"It hasn't always been true. Among the ancient Egyptians, the pharaohs often married their siblings to 'keep it in the family,' although that led to some pretty awful results in terms of birth defects, with King Tut as a prime example. He had a clubfoot and was a total mess in all sorts of ways. European royal families used to intermarry among cousins, which, like in the case of the Habsburg Jaw, could end up with some really ugly results. But today, cousin marriage is outlawed in many places, and nobody has a good word for sibling incest.

"It's kind of understandable, given the genetic issues that can result -- although they're not totally inevitable. But still, it seems like it punches above its weight compared with lots of other kinds of behavior."

Liz looked at me, obviously worried. "Do you think I need to change topics? I mean I don't want to get into something that's just about ancient history."

But by now, I was starting to get into the whole question. "You know, to me the fact that this is such a powerful taboo seems to say that there's something else going on -- namely that there is a real element of sibling attraction, so they have to work extra hard to fight it.

"You know the saying, 'opposites attract'? Well, there's some truth to that, it does happen, but it's much more common for people to end up marrying people who look a lot like them and come from very similar backgrounds. And what's more similar than siblings? Some people claim there's some kind of 'genetic attraction,' though it's definitely not a popular idea these days.

"I think that kind of attraction could be why the taboo is so strong. I mean today, with modern birth control, people could avoid the whole issue of birth defects, but nobody ever says, 'It's okay, they're using birth control.'"

Watching Liz, I decided I needed to stop there. I didn't need to load anything more on her.

By now, Liz was waiting for me to finish. When I stopped, she said, "I had kind of been thinking about it from a different direction. I don't know, maybe trying to come up with something that sounded a little more scientific.

"I had this idea of trying to categorize various types or levels of sibling incest. I mean I suspect that precisely because there is so much of a taboo around it a lot of people will try to find ways to try to deny what they're doing, or at least limit it, maybe telling themselves, we're just doing this, but not that. That sort of thing. That way they can say to themselves, 'Well, it wasn't really incest. I mean, we didn't actually go all the way.' You know, plausible deniability, even if it's not really very plausible."

"Wow," I said. "That's an interesting idea. Actually, that sounds right to me. I think you might be onto something. Especially in terms of the whole behavior thing,".

Liz looked relieved that I seemed to like her idea. "What I did was, I came up with this six-point scale to categorize the different levels involved. You know, sort of like a 'Six Degrees of Incest.'"

I laughed. "That's cool. It makes it sound like some new pop-psychology thing you'd see in some magazine. And people love lists. 'Top 10' lists, 'Seven Reasons Why...,' all that sort of thing. So, what are they?"

* * *

"Well," Liz said, "I have kind of a draft list here:

1.Nothing at all. Just friends. The Platonic ideal. Nothing to see here, folks.

2.Kissing and making out. This seems like it would be the mildest violation, but on the other hand, it also has a romantic element, which could prove to be much more problematic than activities that are simply physical.

3.Activities involving (female) breast play -- i.e., anything above the waist.

4.Activities below the waist, including finger-fucking and hand jobs.

5.Oral sex (on both sides). This comes very close to full-on sex, but suggests that they are observing boundaries to keep from going all the way. It also sidesteps the birth defects issue.

6.All-out sex."

* * *

I was impressed with what she had come up with. (I was also surprised that she was even able to talk about all this stuff.) "That seems to me to make a lot of sense. I mean the taboo element makes it really tricky to have any idea about how widespread it is and what kind of boundaries individual couples put on it, etc.

"I suspect brother/sister incest may be way more common than anybody thinks. And it would make sense that a lot of people would stop someplace along the way, so I think you're onto something with your steps. I'm just not sure how you put them into some kind of framework. Maybe there's some kind of percentage value you could apply to each one, something like that?"

Liz smiled. "I'm really glad you like this idea. Let me think about some possible numbers and maybe I can come back and talk to you some more tomorrow night."

* * *

Tuesday

The next night, Liz came over to talk about what she'd come up with. This time, she was wearing a regular shirt, with the top two buttons unbuttoned. And she was wearing a skirt, but it was definitely above the knee. I was a little surprised, but I didn't pay much attention.

She brought along a page of notes about the different levels. "I came up with some tentative scores for each stage. I don't know if I'm on the right track here, but I think it could be something like this.

1.The Platonic level -- 0% of the way towards sibling incest. This is the only safe level.

2.Making out -- 20% of the way.

3.Second base -- 20%. It's a little hard to decide about these two -- one is more emotional, the other is more purely physical. And what do we do if people are doing both two and three together? Would that be like 30%? Of course, one problem with both of these is that stepping over the line at all is still stepping over the line. So, 20% may not really capture it.

4.Third base -- 35%, maybe? Or more? I'm thinking maybe 40%?

5.Oral -- at least 50%. They're stopping short, but the line is really thin. Maybe 60%? But they are stopping...sort of.

6.Full-on sex. 100%. Obviously. End of story."

Liz stopped and looked up at me. "So, what do you think? I'm especially interested in the question of the difference between making out and second base. Even though for regular couples, second base is obviously a step beyond making out, here maybe it's just a way of saying this is purely physical and not that big a deal. I mean for siblings, making out could be pretty fraught, whereas just having the guy kissing the girl's breasts and sucking on her nipples could be less personal."

She was right. It was a weird situation, and maybe somehow the rules were different. Which one was going to lead you down the slippery slope faster? Could you make out and then not get physical? And if you just got physical, could you keep it that way and not get emotional?

* * *

Liz looked at me, waiting to see what I would say. When I wasn't coming up with an answer, she said, "Look... Would you be willing to try something with me? I know it's really weird of me to suggest anything like this, but..."

She stopped again. Then she said, "Well, you know how some people say there's an instinctive revulsion for people about the idea of anything physical with a sibling? Sort of like some kind of innate taboo? You know, the very idea would have people saying, 'Eeewww! That's gross. I don't want to see that. Put some clothes on.'

"But you were talking about the idea of some kind of potential genetic attraction between siblings. That would be the exact opposite.

"I mean, how do we test that question? It seems to be really important."

She sat there, obviously a little freaked out. More than a little, actually. But then, she suddenly reached up and began unbuttoning her shirt.

I just sat there. What on earth was going on here? This was my sister. My very staid sister at that.

As she kept undoing the buttons, I noticed that the bra she was wearing underneath was purple and very lacy. Like something you would expect from Victoria's Secret. Not from Liz.

When she had finished unbuttoning all the buttons on her shirt, she took the shirt off and dropped it on the floor. She sat there facing me while I sat there with my jaw hanging open.

"What do you think so far?" she said.

"Wow," I said. "Wow. I would never have expected you to be wearing something like that." I'm not sure whether that was the right kind of response, but I was feeling totally confused.

"I went out and bought it this morning. I've never bought anything like it before, but I wanted something different for this."

Then, without saying anything more, she reached behind her back and unhooked the clasp of the bra, shrugged her shoulders together, and let the bra straps slide down her arms. Then she took her bra and dropped it on the floor on top of her shirt.

"So, what do you think?"

What do I think? It took me a moment to be able to say anything, but then I said, "Oh my God! You have the most beautiful breasts I've ever seen. Not that I've seen very many, but you have absolutely perfect breasts."

Almost in spite of herself, Liz broke into this big smile. "I was telling you that I was trying to figure out how this whole thing works. You know, about how siblings are supposed to be naturally turned off by anything physical connected with their brother or sister. So I mean, are you turned off, or grossed out, is it like 'Eeewww,' or are you turned on?... Would you want to kiss my breasts?"

I couldn't believe any of this was happening, and I almost couldn't believe how turned on I was looking at Liz's breasts. I immediately leaned forward and started kissing her breasts and then sucking on her nipples. It was absolutely amazing.

I have no idea what Liz was expecting from this, but she started getting as turned on as I was. "Oh my God, Bradley, that feels good...really good."

Her nipples were totally hard by now, and I was playing with them frantically with my tongue, pushing them in, and then sucking on them some more when they came back out.

Meantime, Liz was just moaning, "Oh my God, I can't believe how good that feels. I'm getting so turned on. Don't stop. I've never felt anything this good."

I was wishing I could do this all night, but finally Liz stopped me and sat back up. "I really don't want to have to stop this, but it's getting late and I have an early class tomorrow morning. But this was absolutely amazing. And I guess maybe it can give us some sort of an idea of how to score this.

"Look, I'll talk to you again tomorrow. I want to compare notes with you on this experience and see what we want to do with the scoring."

She put her bra back on and then her shirt, and tucked it in, and headed back to her dorm.

After she left, I went to the bathroom and jerked off. It was the only way I was going to be able to get any sleep that night.

* * *

Wednesday

The next night, Liz came back to my room. It looked as if she was wearing the same outfit as from the night before.

We sat down on the bed, and Liz turned to me. "Well, did you get a chance to think it over, and did you come up with any ideas about whether we need to change the score?"

I just sat there. I knew she was wearing that sexy purple bra again, and I really couldn't think about much else.

As I was trying to think, I heard a voice say, "Show me your tits." What the hell? This was nuts. What kind of asshole would say something like that? Oh shit, was that me? I mean I was embarrassed as hell, but it was definitely me.

Liz looked at me. "You saw them last night," she said. "I'm pretty sure they're not any different today."

For some reason, I didn't seem to be able to stop myself. "I don't care," I said. "I want to see them again. I want to see them now."

I was kind of expecting Liz to be disgusted with me, but that's not what happened. She was trying to hide it, but I saw that she was actually smiling, and maybe even turned on by this.

I sat there watching while she unbuttoned her shirt and tossed it on the floor, and then took off her bra and tossed it on her shirt.

"Okay," she said, "here they are again. Do they still turn you on? You do remember you are my brother, don't you? And these are your sister's breasts. Aren't you supposed to be grossed out?"

I dove forward and began frantically kissing her breasts and sucking on her nipples. I couldn't believe how much I had wanted this. I never wanted it to end.

Liz was getting totally turned on as well, breathing heavily and saying, "Oh my God, that feels so good! Keep going, Bradley, don't stop!"

But somehow, when I looked up at her face, I suddenly found myself moving up to kiss her mouth. She was looking absolutely beautiful, and I suddenly wanted to see what it felt like to kiss her. To kiss my own sister? What was wrong with me? But I wasn't thinking about any of that. I just wanted to kiss her while we were both so turned on.