Incest - Why I hate it and why it should be legal

Whilst I am most definitely an ardent fan, anime culture is nevertheless rife with many weird and wacky things that will forever befuddle and disgusts me, such as moe, tentacle rape and loli. Another source of disgust, and the topic of today's post, is incest.

For reasons I will never understand, there is a buttload of incest, either implied or outright in many anime and manga that I otherwise enjoy. And in response, I must ask -as I do so often-;

WTF Japan?

There are like what, thousands of people that we will meet throughout our lifetime, and none of them are more attractive then our kid sister!? What the hell?? And while I'm on that note, why is the vast majority of incest (or at least, incestuous desire) that I see, between an older male and his underage sister?

Seriously Japan, that's just messed up. Not only can the dude find no one outside his own family, but he's a pedophile as well??? Is everyone in your country restrained with steel chains everytime their in the vicinity of their siblings!?

And so I must once again ask, as I ever do in vain, please please please come up with a fetish that's actually hot. You screwed up with mecha musume, you screwed up with rape, you screwed up with moe and you screwed up with incest. You have hundreds of mangaka and anime directors in your country! Surely but one amongst them can finally come up with a fetish that won't make me feel like punching myself!

That said however, I believe this is now as good a time as any to segue to the other point I wanted to make regarding this lovely topic.

Whilst I am frankly disgusted with the fetishisisation of incest in anime, I do strongly believe that the criminalization of incestuous relationships between consenting adults is wrong.

Before you read further, you should know two things;

a) I am writing this argument from a legal perspective. I can't give a rat's ass about the morality of the issue, what irks me is that the current laws regarding incest are unfair from a legal standpoint.

b) The law I reference is Australian law, particularly in the state of New South Wales. The law in your country may or may not be similar.

As of this writing, incest is illegal in New South Wales, pursuant to s78A of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). The statute currently states:

78A Incest

(1) Any person who has sexual intercourse with a close family member who is of or above the age of 16 years is liable to imprisonment for 8 years.

(2) For the purposes of this section, a "close family member" is a parent, son, daughter, sibling (including a half-brother or half-sister), grandparent or grandchild, being such a family member from birth.

So why exactly is this unfair? Because the rationale for this law is inconsistent with other forms of sexual offense laws in Australia. Summarised, the reasoning for s78A comes in two forms; incest is inherently immoral, and incestuous sex produces babies who suffer a higher chance of physical or mental retardation.

In regards to the immorality argument; it is not the role of government to be our moral guardian and to legislate accordingly. Whilst morality is deeply rooted in our legal system, acts are made illegal not because they are 'immoral', but because the act causes actual harm or loss to either the person doing the act, or to another person.

Incest however, as long as it is consensual, causes neither harm nor loss to any of the participating parties.

The second argument, completely fails to rationalize s78A in any conceivable way. s78A as it stands, outlaws the act of incestuous sex, not the results of the act. Put simply, if I were to bang my hypothetical sister, we'd be criminals, regardless of whether a child is borne.

Furthermore, the logical conclusion of the retarded child argument should lead to the outlawing of sex for anyone suffering from retardation, diseases or other negative traits that can be genetically inherited by their children. This is obviously not the case and rightly so. Similarly, incestuous couples should not be held to the double standard of this argument.

In conclusion, there is no reasonable argument as to why incest should be illegal. It is an unfair law that is bigoted and condescending, and should be repealed with all due haste.

This of course doesn't change the fact that I feel like kicking someone in the face everytime I see incest in my anime.