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Fire Emblem and the Westermarck Effect
Feb. 7th, 2012 04:43 pmFire Emblem: it's got incest. I don't know about you, but I'd heard about that one long before playing a single game.
I'm not going to wonder why this is so prominently featured, to the point where FE4 was allegedly toned down prior to release yet still contains it as a plot point. But, let's explore it a bit, and not in the kink meme way.
Humans appear to have a mechanism, or mechanisms, to avoid boinking their siblings. Have you ever seen a romantic couple where they looked, and even maybe acted, like siblings and yet weren't? They're pretty common. In fact, there appears to be a phenomenon known as genetic sexual attraction where people do indeed click in every possible way with close blood relatives-- provided they've been strangers for the early part of their lives. The Westermarck effect is thought to have developed to defuse that attraction; basically, if kids are raised together, they end up not being interested in one another in that way. Even if they're not blood relations. There's a critical period for this reverse imprinting, though-- the kids need to get desensitized to one another before the age of six or seven.
( This is analysis of the topic and not a celebration thereof. )
I'm not going to wonder why this is so prominently featured, to the point where FE4 was allegedly toned down prior to release yet still contains it as a plot point. But, let's explore it a bit, and not in the kink meme way.
Humans appear to have a mechanism, or mechanisms, to avoid boinking their siblings. Have you ever seen a romantic couple where they looked, and even maybe acted, like siblings and yet weren't? They're pretty common. In fact, there appears to be a phenomenon known as genetic sexual attraction where people do indeed click in every possible way with close blood relatives-- provided they've been strangers for the early part of their lives. The Westermarck effect is thought to have developed to defuse that attraction; basically, if kids are raised together, they end up not being interested in one another in that way. Even if they're not blood relations. There's a critical period for this reverse imprinting, though-- the kids need to get desensitized to one another before the age of six or seven.
( This is analysis of the topic and not a celebration thereof. )
