DISCLAIMER: If you have not already read On Sexual Fantasy and "Antis," (An Updated List of Resources) I highly recommend skimming it! As the title says, it's a list of resources discussing sexual fantasy (particularly the of the taboo variety) and how sexual fantasy is a normal and healthy way to explore oneself. It quotes sexual psychologists, psychological studies, psychological articles, and anecdotal discussions from queer creatives. Hopefully it covers all the bases!
Content Warnings: Discussion of Incest Fantasy & Kink, AI, Roleplay/BDSM, Sexual Fantasy, Sexual Psychology
In the recent months there has been an uptick of interest in AI, and as with anything, there has also been been a great deal of discourse surrounding it. We won't be going over the fact that any NSFW interaction breaks OAI's TOS, nor AI generated artwork, nor the other overall problems that surround AI. That's for a person more well-versed in AI to discuss. Today, we'll be talking about what people do with AI, and what is or isn't harmful. A common question on the internet, even well before AI was involved, was "I am having incest fantasies about [thing]. Is that bad?" It's so popular a question that there are multiple Reddit and Quora threads discussing this very phenomenon. In fact, if you were to Google "Are incest fantasies..." right now, you'll come up with thousands of people asking the same question: "Is this okay?"
Typically, on internet forums, answering a question like that sparks a wide debate about how the original poster (OP) is evil, or why the OP should fuck their step-sister, or the natural remedy some random commenter claims cured their gay incest tendencies. Shockingly, with this particular question, that isn't (as often) the case. In fact, when Googling this question for my research, I was deeply surprised by the number of users assuring various people that these fantasies are a normal, healthy part of life, so long as they have no urge or intent to act upon them outside the fantasy space.
However, a large portion of the internet that has adopted TERF and Nazi views on degeneracy will argue that an incest fantasy is indicative of a mental disorder, demanding a user "get help" (whatever they think that means) when said user expresses interest in incestual fantasies. These usually include insults, harassment, and a rather daft collection of meme images that may or may not be related to the subject.
But what proof is there to indicate that incest fantasies are, in fact, harmful? And how does this tie into AI?
One particular website used to interact with AI characters (henceforth called "bots") is JanitorAI. JanitorAI is a character archive and dedicated roleplaying platform where users can enter a chat with a character and do (almost) whatever they want. JanitorAI is one of the more popular options behind Venus, but we'll get to that later.
JanitorAI has three main rules: no bestiality, no blood-relative incest, and no underage bots. Users, however, skirt these rules frequently. Bots will be posted with ambiguous ages, or their descriptions may imply the possibility of incest. When these bots are found, moderation quickly removes them-- and often make disparaging comments in the Reddit and Discord, to boot.
While many of these posts are swiftly deleted from their Reddit page, the comments often remain visible. It's easy to see how the community feels about this particular kink and those who have any interest in it. Comments decrying incest (and other "taboo" kinks) get "upvotes" in the hundreds at times, with the general consensus being that if you disagree with the harassment, YOU are a bad, immoral person. Said bad, immoral people are then either banned or "downvoted" to hell and back.
Now, a website has every right to disallow specific content. There is no inherent problem with JanitorAI saying that they do not want this kind of content on their website. But are they, and their userbase, in the right in saying this content is immoral, degenerative, and evil?
Obviously, no. No one is in the right when jumping on the hate train.
"Do disturbed, conflicted, problematic fantasies really reflect deep-seated psychological disturbance? The building evidence suggests that they do not," quotes David J. Ley, Ph.D on Psychology Today in his article Sick Secret Sexual Fantasies. This sentiment is repeated in other sexual psychiatric circles, best seen in the article linked above alongside the disclaimer. In Sick Secret Sexual Fantasies, Dr. Ley discusses the novel Who's Been Sleeping in Your Head: The Secret World of Sexual Fantasies by psychology professor Brett Kahr.
"Kahr argues that the fantasies he saw in the most disturbed people tended to be fantasies that were extremely simplistic and two-dimensional. He saw no relationship in his research on sexual fantasies, between disturbing and complex, fantastic sexual fantasies, and any level of mental disturbance," says Dr. Ley, "[...]from reading the research by Kahr, Nancy Friday, Seymour Fisher and others, works that reveal the large level of socially-unacceptable, and often frightening and disturbing fantasies that live inside the heads of the normal people around us, there would be extraordinary amounts of infidelity, incest, bestiality, group sex, homosexuality, and other behaviors, going on every day, amongst almost everyone in society, as opposed to the relatively low actual frequency of these behaviors."
Unfortunately, what research there is on sexual fantasy is both difficult to come by naturally and highly volatile. In America, anywhere from 6-35% of the population are Evangelicals, with a whopping 63% estimated to be of the Christian faith (or some variant of it). Among the many taboos of Christianity is sex, and anything related to sex-- including but not limited to: queerness, transgenderism, BDSM, uncouth or provocative art and stories, and discussions of one's own experiences as a victim of sexual abuse. With such a high portion of the country considering anything to do with sex "evil," it's no wonder the general consensus when talking about kink is that "it's bad."
This behavior has also seeped further into Western culture as a whole, though it was not uncommon in the UK, Canada, and Australia (Australia even attempted banning adult women with small breasts from porn). We are taught in schools that sex is bad, say nothing of how little we are taught at all. It's no wonder the average person hears about a sexual fantasy that isn't "missionary between adults of the same age" and clutches their pearls in terror.
Is it healthy for you to roleplay incest with AI bots, then? Yes, so long as you do not have the desire or intent to act upon them outside of the realm of fantasy.
I would like to, in this small addition, address consanguinity. Consanguinity, as it is used in online spaces, is the belief that incest between consenting parties is safe and healthy. Besides the increased risk of autosomal recessive disorders and congenital anomalies in children born of incest, there are very few instances of consanguinity that do not result from grooming or coercion. There have been instances where two parties are unaware of their relationship to one another, and these instances are not counted in this particular discussion.
Incest between close blood relatives is illegal in most places in the USA. This article does not condone the act of real life incest between family members, only the roleplay between unrelated adults and AI.
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