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The White Lotus is the latest TV show to feature an incest storyline, an increasingly common trend in popular media – one that experts are warning could have dire real-world consequences.
Mike White’s acerbic, pitch-black comedy series is no stranger to pushing boundaries, but all signs point to season three taking things to a whole new level.
Early in the first episode, in what reads pretty clearly as foreshadowing, eldest son Saxon Ratliff (Patrick Schwarzenegger) protests that his sister Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) should not sleep in the same room as their younger brother Lochlan (Sam Nivola) as they have ‘full grown genitals.’
Later on, Saxon is fully nude in the bathroom, watching porn as his brother looks on – possibly because Saxon intentionally left the door open.
At another point, Saxon makes sexual comments about how hot his sister is to his brother, pointing out that she’s ‘never been laid.’
While the siblings in the show are adults, their behaviour falls onto the spectrum of sibling sexual behaviour (SSB), a term psychology practitioners and researchers use to refer to incestual relationships between siblings.
Doctor Sophie King-Hill, a professor at the University of Birmingham who specialises in this area of research, says SSB behaviour ‘exists on a spectrum of behaviours that vary in severity. It does not just refer to penetrative acts but encompasses other behaviors such as forced pornography viewing, watching a sibling undress, and making them engage in sexual acts with another child.’
Because it often begins in childhood, professionals don’t refer to children who exhibit these behaviours as perpetrators of abuse, but that doesn’t mean the consequences aren’t severe – for all involved.
Children with a history of SBB often experience ‘co-morbid issues, lots of long-term damage, and may even end up being ostracised from their families. They may feel guilt and shame,’ Dr. King-Hill explains to Metro.
So what does it mean that so many TV shows are depicting these kinds of deeply damaging dynamics?
‘Storylines that show it as abusive are a different conversation, but storylines that normalise it are dangerous and damaging,’ Dr. King-Hill says, quick to call shows that use sexual dynamics between siblings as tools of sensationalism ‘ethically wrong.’
Another recent example is the Netflix hit Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which is based on a true story that involves two sons being sexually abused by their father, leading them to eventually murder him and their mother.
There’s no question that Monsters portrays the son’s relationship with their father as abusive, but, to the outrage of the very real Menendez family, the show added an entirely speculative homoerotic relationship between the two brothers.
But perhaps you can argue that The White Lotus – as well as Monsters – is condemning this kind of behaviour.
As Catherine Rottenberg, a professor of Media, Communications, and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths University of London, tells Metro, part of the pleasure of these kinds of shows is that they intentionally portray ‘the rot and corruption at the root of this amount of power and wealth.’
Or, as X user @silverplled put it: ‘People not realizing that The White Lotus is a satire denouncing its characters while presenting you with the attraction and the allure of the incest storyline… like it hasn’t been doing the same thing with murder and cheating for 2 seasons now…’
But viewers have been reacting to the show in droves online, and most aren’t calling it abuse. In fact, for the most part, fans seem excited about the taboo twist.
@coreytimes joked: ‘The White Lotus writers are despicable for this gay incest storyline. Portraying such abhorrent and morally corrupt behavior in the current political climate is detrimental to the LGBTQ+ community. I can’t wait to watch them kiss.’
@mescalordi agreed: ‘I’m nastier than I thought because why am I excited to see the gay incest on the white lotus… i hear episodes 5 and 6 are the ones where stuff rlly goes down between them. can they drop all episodes tonight.’
@culkinco wrote: ‘Gay incest on the white lotus…I’m slightly intrigued.’
@undonekingdom posted: ‘Need to watch white lotus for the incest plot.’
@fIeafag chimed in: ‘I want the white lotus brothers to kiss. It’s not incest if you can’t get pregnant.’
Similar titillation resounded among fans of Monsters, who saw a shower scene between brothers Lyle and Erik as distinctly sultry, even romantic.
SBB is an underresearched area of psychology and sexual abuse, despite ‘Research indicating that it’s one of the most common forms of sexual abuse,’ Dr. King-Hill continues, noting that SBB storylines that are intended to titillate viewers are ‘insulting to victims of this kind of abuse who are trying to recover and heal from trauma.’
So why are these storylines popping up so often? For one thing, as Rottenberg tells Metro: ‘In the case of incest (and here it is different from House of Dragon, which is sci-fi), it is also about watching taboos be broken but in mediated form.’
She goes on to explain that as ‘popular culture increasingly thrives on the sensational’ media has to go to greater and greater lengths to shock and titillate their audiences.
‘Social media theorists have been saying this for a while,’ she continues. ‘In order to gain attention in a like/attention economy, content has to be ever more attention-grabbing.’
Dr. King-Hill agrees that this taboo exists when it comes to SSB and incest but does not think programs like The White Lotus are engaging with it in a productive way.
‘We do need to remove taboos so people can report when they’re being abused,’ she says. ‘We need to take the stigma away and create safe spaces where people can report.’
But, she continues, saying the issue: ‘Needs attention in the right way, and this is not the right way.’
Indeed, it’s difficult to argue that there isn’t at least an aspect of endorsement in The White Lotus’ portrayal of the conventionally beautiful Ratliff siblings lust for eachother.
Rottenberg ultimately agrees, theorising that storylines like it – or the murderous romantic love between twins Cersei and Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones, or, more recently, Rhaenyra Targaryen and her uncle Daemon Targaryen in House of the Dragon – grab the audience’s attention because ‘There is pleasure and repulsion, both.’
Some viewers, luckily, are finding the trend more concerning than deliciously scandalising. @nagumosdays wrote on X: ‘Okay so I just watched the White Lotus and I honestly think it has to do with the fact that ppl are incapable of recognizing incest as abuse, especially in regards to this show.’
Reddit user @krustomer posted in a thread about the show: ‘As a victim of incest, this character is incestuous. This season might be too triggering to watch, especially if they just skirt around the issue.’
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