Azdaema

I once saw a tumblr post what went something like this: "in my gay incest ships, they’re super different (example: thor x loki) and in my het incest ships they’re super alike (example: cesare x lucrezia)." I wish I could find that post again, and begin this essay with quoting and crediting it, because this is—in effect—an expanded version of that idea.

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

source debated

In theory, ethical prostitution might be possible. People can imagine a scenario where that's the case. They can write a story about that. That story can be pretty good—I love Inara Serra and Phèdre nó Delaunay.

But ultimately that is all theory; it's hypothetical, it's imagined. The storytelling is part of theory, not practice. And when in practice, when the majority of real-world prostitution is highly abusive, it is grossly immoral to continue to insist, "Well, abuse can creep in anywhere. This is just an isolated bad case—the theory is still solid." Horrific abuse is not a statistical inconvenience to be swept under the rug: it is a real issue that needs to really be addressed. And situations that disproportionately yield abuse are not detached from the abuse that follows.

This is a callout post for the incest shipping community. Sort of.

Come with me—let's go down to the harbor. Let's walk among the ships; I will show you my armada. They are glorious ships, and I love them fiercely.

You may notice that a disproportionately high number of them are siblings. What's up with that?