Lately, every time my male friends attempt to masturbate, they’re bombarded with videos of brothers and sisters, mothers and sons, or fathers and daughters fucking one another. Family role play is fine, they concede, when it’s confined to stepsisters and distant cousins, but they can’t understand this immediate relations erotica.

The extreme taboo of incest makes many people feel nauseated. Yet the pornographic genre has been growing in popularity and prevalence, with titles like Deflower Me Daddy and Forbidden Family Affairs dominating the X-rated internet. Major adult sites like PornHub and GameLink are reporting steep rises in the number of searches for incestuous porn plots. But is familial fornication really what consumers want, or are we simply craving something more scandalous than the last skin flick we got off to?

The assumption of the psychology behind incest porn — the perverse craving to fuck a family member — is generally not what’s prompting this genre’s expansion. Both those who oppose and those who approve of incest porn are aware that the actors involved aren’t actually related. Yet the many consumers who seek out these scenarios play along with the narrative, looking to fulfill a forbidden fantasy.

Feminist pornographer Jacky St. James, who embraces the controversial genre and frequently directs fauxcestual films, illustrates that, “There is this allure of the untouchable, and what’s untouchable to us is often the most appealing.” St. James consciously constructs her smut utilizing taboos and twisted layers. Because she believes that lewd and prohibited dynamics are inherently seductive, she’s consistently pushing the envelope to defy social conventionalism.

This strategy extends beyond just the depiction of blood-relative relations. The porn industry as a whole feeds upon defying propriety. Rape play, for example, violates our communal values, fetishizing a vicious sexual invasion as a stimulating fantasy.

Culturally licentious content can certainly do our society a disservice, allowing any impressionable kid with an internet connection to access these depraved videos, but it could also benefit the many niche communities that otherwise have no outlet for their desires.

Rape and incest porn alike sexualize an extremely unsettling subject in a safe, consensual space where everyone is informed and in control. Creating scenes of these scenarios can cater to the common turn-ons of power dynamics (dominant and submissive roles), while incorporating an otherwise taboo relationship for those who fetishize the forbidden.

Although consumers with an interest in incest may be in the minority at the moment, mainstream entertainment could begin shifting the tide. Of late, familial fucking has become a frequent feature of major films and television (think Jaime and Cersei Lannister of Game of Thrones). In time, cultural indundation with incestual romance could pique our curiosity, offering us permission to explore this erotic content more fully.

But for now, we can continue to cringe at the ever-present daddy/daughter porn surrounding us, taking solace in the knowledge that its growth is not necessarily an indication of a generational Oedipus complex. More likely, it’s a symptom of an oversaturated porn market, a lifetime spent on the internet, and the incessant impulse to find edgier smut that can still make us come.

After all, we all need to get off to get by, and necessity is the mother of invention.