[FACT OR FAKE #89] Is An 18-Year-Old Girl Really Dating (And Plans To Marry) Her Dad?
An 18-year-old girl who in an interview with New York Magazine's Science of US Blog opened up about dating her dad and what it's like being in as unconventional relationship (read consensual incest) as the one she and her biological father are in. But is it true? Your weekly SAYS' FACT OR FAKE columnist Sadho explores the deep web to determine whether or not.
Cover image via Laurence Mouton/PhotoAlto/Corbis
Editor's note: The story discusses sexual taboo. NSFW.
On 15 January 2015, New York Magazine's Science of Us blog featured an article titled 'What It's Like to Date Your Dad.'
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Presented in the column's signature stark Q-and-A format, the interview of an 18-year-old girl from the Great Lakes region about her consensual incestuous relationship with her dad caused an immediate stir around the Internet world due to its content that both intrigued and alarmed readers for a number of reasons
The article, notes Bustle, makes it seem that such a taboo relationship might not be quite as outlandish as one might assume. In fact, when estranged blood relatives meet as adults, it is apparently not uncommon for one or both parties to experience a phenomenon known as Genetic Sexual Attraction or GSA.
The article began with a bit of background on the GSA phenomenon. Accounts of that sort of taboo chemistry developing between long-lost relatives have been anecdotally reported but rarely openly discussed, as the preface to the interview [explained](http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/01/what-its-like-to-date-your-dad.html):
"In the late '80s, the founder of a support group for adopted children who had recently reconnected with their biological relatives coined the term "Genetic Sexual Attraction" (GSA) to describe the intense romantic and sexual feelings that she observed occurring in many of these reunions. According to an article in The Guardian, experts estimate that *these taboo feelings occur in about 50 percent of cases where estranged relatives are reunited as adults* (GSA's discoverer had herself become attracted to the son she'd adopted out when she met him 26 years later, but her feelings were not reciprocated)."
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The Science of Us article further notes that consensual incestuous relationship between fathers and their daughters remains the least reported and perhaps the most taboo sort of GSA relationship
One of the article's key passages described the father-daughter's first tryst, which she stated was also her first sexual experience:
Further in the interview, the unidentified 18-year-old says she told her dad she was a virgin and "wanted him to be the first person I made love to." Her dad, she says, let her know that "if [she] didn't feel comfortable at any point [she] should tell him." Read below:
Further in the interview, she provides a number of additional details that raises red flags about both the truthfulness of the statements made as well as the potentially coercive nature of the relationship
Reactions to the father-daughter's story, as noted by Salon, range from sympathy to disgust to skepticism, all understandable responses to a story about an enormous cultural taboo
So what's the deal here? Is the woman's story a hoax?
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SAYS FACT OR FAKE ANALYSIS: Status Undetermined
As aptly noted by Snopes, perhaps understandably missing from the interview is any identifying information about the father-daughter couple beyond mention of a very generalised locale, "the Great Lakes region."
Less convincing was a lack of corroborating information presented by the article's writer. Such as, were the girl's claims in any way fact-checked, and if so, to what degree? For instance, did anyone speak with the purportedly approving grandparents of the girl (parents of the father) to confirm they indeed supported their son's plan to marry his once-abandoned daughter?
**In conclusion, it's one of those rare stories where facts seem stranger than the fiction. In the absence of any proof to back up this unusual story, we at SAYS remain highly skeptical about its factuality.**
