I am a 22-year-old who has been living at home for the last year. My parents are divorced, so I've gone back and forth from one place to the other. The other day, I was using my father's computer, and the history came up on the search engine. It turns out that my father views pornography that involves incest fantasies. It made me physically sick, and I'm wondering if I should continue to have a relationship with him.
In a week, I start a new job in another country. Should I tell him I know about it and I'm not interested in having a relationship with him anymore? Do I tell friends or family? Should I trust what my gut is telling me, jump in a cab and never talk to him again?
Disturbed And Distressed
There are people who are turned on by incest scenarios -- hypothetical dads seducing hypothetical daughters, fictional moms seducing fictional sons -- who are nevertheless revolted by the idea of actual incest. Many of these incest fetishists have sent me letters over the years, wondering what's wrong with them. What gives?
It's the thrill of violating a taboo, not a child; it's the power dynamics that have been eroticized, not the parental dynamics. But that's for another column. You wrote, DAD, because you don't know what to do about your dad.
Unless your father has given you reason to suspect that he actually wants to fuck you -- unless finding your dad's porn helped you to identify a pattern of inappropriate behaviors on your father's part with but one possible interpretation -- let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's assume that one of the many letters I've received from incest fetishists was written by your dad.
I'm operating under an assumption that your father has never done anything that made you feel unsafe. If your discovery had led you to connect a bunch of deeply creepy dots, that's something you would've mentioned. Which is why I'm not just urging you to give your father the benefit of the doubt, but also to take what you found out about him and stuff it down the memory hole.
Don't say anything to your father, or to anyone else. You no longer have to live with your father -- or use his computer -- and I see no need to terminate your relationship with him, or to go nuclear on his reputation, over a deeply creepy kink that he neither asked for nor has ever attempted to act on.
1. Thirty-year-old gay man here. I was briefly dating someone until he was a huge asshole to me. I have since not had any contact with him. However, I have been Facebook stalking him and obsessing over pictures of the guys I assume he's dating now. Why am I having such a hard time getting over him? Our relationship was so brief! He was an asshole!
2. I lost my virginity by being raped when I was 19. I started dating only last year, because I thought sex was scary. Do you think that's relevant?
3. I used to have stretched-out earlobes. When I took my plugs out, I did get "earlabia" for a few days, but then they closed up and no one really noticed.
Normal Earlobes Now
1. I can't know for sure! But it sounds like you might still have feelings for this guy! Just a hunch!
2. I'm sorry that your very first sexual experience was so traumatic, and indeed it strikes me as relevant. You were violated and powerless during your very first sexual experience and now, 10 years later, your relationship ended in a way that left you feeling violated and powerless. Stalking your ex on Facebook gives you a feeling of power, but that power is bogus. Stalking him is making you miserable, and it's pushing back the date that you're finally over this guy. Knock it off.
3. You've given me hope for all the otherwise cute boys I see wandering around with stretched-out earlabia.
Hipster boys! Keep stretching your earlobes! I'm a hipster girl and stroking the silky texture of a nice stretched-out set of earlobes gets me insanely wet. And tongue-fucking a stretched piercing is enough to bring me most of the way to orgasm.
I stretched my own earlobes for mostly sexual reasons. I figured that if someone licking the outside of my earlobe felt so good, imagine if someone could lick the inside of my earlobe! Now they can -- and it's bliss!
I'm not saying you have to change your mind, Dan, because YKIOBINMK -- your kink is OK but it's not my kink. But I was disappointed that you would come out so strongly against stretched-out earlobes. You're always defending lesser kinks. Could it be that you were unaware of mine?
Yes, Ears Are Hot
I know enough about sex to know that if something exists, someone out there is perving on it. And if a particular something is made of human flesh and has a hole in the middle, someone out there somewhere is sticking fingers, tongues, dicks or gerbils in it, and then posting the video on the World Wide Interwebs.
Somehow it didn't occur to me that there were earlabia fetishists out there, so I appreciate -- kindasorta -- you taking the time to clue me in. While I disapprove of earlabia, YEAH, I will defend to the death your right to tongue them.
I worked with a young man who decided that gauging his earlobes to the max was sexy. When the look got old, he took the plugs out. Because of the size of the plugs, the holes in his ears would not close. He had to have them surgically cut and stitched, which made his ears look deformed. The cost was $800, and it wasn't covered by insurance.
Just Saying
You've filled me with despair for all the otherwise cute boys I see wandering around with stretched-out earlabia.
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