But how frequently?
Statistics on the frequency of incest are difficult to came by, and even mare difficult to judge as to accuracy. Most cases of incest are revealed only when, through some other occurrence, such as the pregnancy of a minor, the law becomes involved. This, of course, is only the tip of an iceberg. It is difficult to judge the size of the iceberg itself.
The late Alfred Kinsey, during research for his Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, asked the 4,441 women who were interviewed if they had experienced sexual contacts before adolescence. Nearly one in four reported that they had; and, in 609 cases where the older males were identified, only 52 percent were strangers, friends or acquaintances accounted far 32 percent, and the rest were members of the family. Uncles accounted far 9 percent of the first sexual contacts of the women interviewed, brothers, accounted far 3 per cent and the other 4 percent were introduced to sex by their own fathers.
These figures represent the percentages of the 609 cases in which the first sexual contact was identified, of course, and it may be inaccurate to attempt to extend them to the full survey. Still, they indicate that a startling number of young females were — and are — first seduced by a member of their own family. And seduced may be an inappropriate term. It seems reasonable to assume that there are many cases where the daughter take the initiative, leading her own father dawn the primrose path that leads to incestuous intercourse.
If the Kinsey report can be accepted as an accurate cross-section of the sexual habits of the human creature — and mast researchers concede that it is exactly that — then the number of people who have engaged in intercourse with members of their own family must be truly staggering. As a matter of fact, many researchers have argued that, if the Kinsey figures were inaccurate in any way — it was because they underestimated the number of people who have engaged in the sexual practices not readily accepted by our society.
The recent changes in the family structure are another fact or that must be taken into consideration in any objective study of incest. The Kinsey study was published in 1953. In that year the family was, in mast cases, headed by the father. He was respected as the one who provided. The profile he presented to his child was probably much stronger than is seen by the daughter of today, and for that reason she may well have been less likely to attempt to hurdle the barrier of incest by which they were separated.
Today, in ever-growing numbers, women are gaining equality within the family structure. They work. They contribute to the support of the family — and the father thus becomes more human, and more approachable, in the eyes of his children.
In 1953, the year of the Kinsey report, people were far more reluctant than today to admit that they had engaged in sexual behavior which might be considered antisocial. Thus, considering today's atmosphere of greater sexual freedom, it seems reasonable to conclude that a new study of sexual attitudes and experiences would find an even higher number of women willing to admit that they had engaged in incestuous intercourse.
Youth of today is more aware, sexually, than the young people of years gone by, and it may well be that this awareness will lead to an increase in intra-family sex. Only time will tell. But it is a certainty that the children of those couples who engage in the mate swapping to which we have referred will, in most cases, become aware of the activities of their parents. The effect of such a discovery is hard to predict and will, of course, vary in each case; but it may be that many children, seeing one barrier fall, will feel free to abandon their own moral codes.
The youth communes, too, are another attack upon the traditional structure of the family, and the effect may be tremendous and far-reaching.
In many of these communes, where all property is shared, nudity is accepted without comment, and there are no traditional husbands and wives, even sex is a communal item. "Making like", it is often called — and the responsibility for the rearing of the children is often shared among the members of the commune.
In such an atmosphere, the child is likely to find it difficult to find a father-image with which she may identify. When the mother is shared equally between several men, and the child receives both her affection and her discipline from more than one "father", it seems highly unlikely that her mind will erect what Freud called the barrier against incest and erect may be the key word in Freud's writings on the subject.
Raised in such a commune, knowing the females are shared, feeling an equal affection for the male adults of the household, and reaching puberty — is the child likely, if aroused sexually, to make a distinction between her natural father and another? Probably not.
The attitudes of the other members of the commune, of course, will bear heavily upon the development of the child. It may well be that the parents, following their instincts, will maintain the taboo against incest. Perhaps they will not. But the tremendous number of communes now forming across the nation does seem a point worth watching. This final destruction of the family unit could be the first signal that society is shedding its traditional taboo against incest. During the coming years, as the children of these communal families reach puberty, we may well see a tremendous increase in the incidence of sex within the family.
Many members of these communes will no doubt return to the mainstream of our society, picking up the moral codes from which they have attempted to flee. Others will take their place. The communes may be a permanent thing; they may fade into oblivion.
But they are surely the most concerted attack ever made upon the accepted structure of the family and the barrier erected against the incest taboo.
Will the barrier fall? Only time will tell. This book does not pretend to hold the answer to that question. Time and research will provide that answer. And the book is not about the people society calls "hippies"; nor is it about communes. It is about the people next door. The businessman with the lovely young daughter. It is about the people who, perhaps, work with you, or attend your church; the daughter may go to school with your own daughter. For it is a fact — like it or not — that incest does occur.
The people you will meet within these pages are real. The stories are their own, and so are the words. Sometimes sordid, sometimes heartbreaking, each of them is true. They are case histories of daughters and fathers...
... Daughters and fathers who ignore the barrier against incest.
Chapter One
Your father for mine?
Mama would have raised pure hell if she could have seen us there, naked, four in one bed, sweating even though the air conditioner in the motel room was turned to its coldest. I always sweat when I fuck, sweat until my body gets slippery; and now, as we rested after our first balling of the night, I could feel the perspiration forming cold beads on the flesh of my knockers, on my thighs, my belly. It felt good.
Daddy was sweating, too. His dark hair was wet and pasted to his forehead. The hair on his broad chest and muscular legs was wet and glistening with sweat. He was resting with one arm thrown over his eyes, shielding them from the glare of the overhead light, and I could see that the dark hair beneath his arms was also damp. So was his cock. And the hair around it.