Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Things We Dare Not See: Media Revisions Of Incestuous Relationships, Mattheus M. Oliveira

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nowadays we can see a steadily growing acceptance of queer relationships in our films and novels, whether they are romance films or violent war movies. What we don’t get to see are examples of incestuous relationships that are consensual and harmless. For example, when Luke and Leia accidentally share some romantic feelings in Star Wars, that bond is suppressed. We don’t get an acknowledgment of a brother and sister’s emotional support in the movie adaptation of V.C Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic. This erasure stems from a long history of cultural and legal censorship of incest that only discusses …