Cripping incest discourse(s)

In this article, I chart the ableist presuppositions associated with the incest taboo. Specifically, I interrogate two ways in which incest is deployed as a particular form of knowledge (and consequently prohibited because of such knowledges): first, the knowledge that incest creates inbreeding and attendant ‘abnormalities’; and second, that incest is a threat to the sanctity of the family. I challenge both these assertions on the basis that they are grounded in ableist (and heteronormative) ways of thinking. While I dwell on the theoretical aspects of this analysis, in the second half of the article I move to explore the ethico-political dimensions that arise from such theorisations. Drawing on the intersections of crip/queer theory, I wonder whether we should ‘fuck the future’, or whether we should imagine a queer/crip future that is not yet here. Such choices, I hope, will help us inform our understandings and approaches towards incestuous practices.