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Thursday, November 22, 2012

Savage Love SL Letter of the Day: This Twin-Fetish Thing

Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 1:30 PM

I'm on hiatus while working on a manuscript for a new book. In the meantime, please enjoy these classic Savage Love letters pulled from previous columns. I will be back when the book is finished. —Dan

Originally published November 22, 2007:

I am a 21-year-old, attractive straight male with an identical twin brother, also straight. I've never understood the "twin-fetish" thing, and whenever girls mentioned it, my response was confusion and disgust. Thing is, I was at a party with my brother a week ago, and this girl stated quite plainly that she had a thing for twins and wanted to do both of us at the same time. This girl is hot—great body, fuck-me eyes, likes to take control. And so my brother and I decided that we weren't so disgusted with the idea after all.

I have two questions: How common is this twin-fetish thing? And where's the incest line? This girl says she wants to see my brother and me kiss, but I don't want to do that if it crosses the incest line.

A Nervous Twin

My response after the jump...

It's amazing how quickly "confusion and disgust" at a proposed position/kink/sibling-combo-platter morphs into "comprehension and desire" when someone with come-fuck-me eyes/tits/asscheeks, etc., does the propositioning. Bill O'Reilly wants to rub falafels on your tits? You're on the phone with your lawyer. Milo Ventimiglia wants to rub falafels on your tits? You're in your kitchen mashing up chickpeas in your underwear.

Anyway, how common is the twin-fetish thing? Common enough for beer and chewing-gum companies to market their products exploiting your kind, ANT, and, in a related development, common enough to have its very own porn genre. Rest assured that you and your brother are going to receive proposals like this one so long as you insist on being young and attractive and identical. (With the notable exception of Viola and Sebastian, fraternal twins aren't nearly as compelling.)

As to where you should draw the "incest line," well, different people draw that line in different places. Personally, I feel there's something vaguely incestuous about being in the same time zone when one of my siblings is getting it on with someone—hell, I'm uncomfortable being in the same time zone when one of my siblings is showering. So you'll have to look inside yourself, ANT, and then look at the outside of that smoking-hot girl again, before you can decide where to draw that line.

But I'm sure I speak for everyone out there reading this column when I say this: If you decide to go ahead with this threesome, whether it includes incestuous twin tongue kisses or not, we all wanna see the video on XTube.

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Hiatus may refer to

Hiatus (linguistics), a phonological term referring to the lack of a consonant separating two vowels in separate syllables, as in 'co-operation'

Posted by the letter 'H' on November 22, 2012 at 2:12 PM

i once read an old sci-fi exploring the idea of clones, where they described themselves as 'man-made identical twins'; and there was a bit of a question over whether ten of them fucking in a tent was incest, or only masturbation....

Posted by sappho on November 22, 2012 at 2:34 PM

Yes! Finally, a letter I remember. Always wondered what happened with this one...I mean, Dan, if there were ever a letter that needed followup...

Posted by pzzz on November 22, 2012 at 2:34 PM

@2 I remember that story as well! Any idea what it was? I think it might have been Ursula K Leguin, but sadly my parents gave away most of my old pulp-fiction when I left for school...

Posted by zivilisierter Wurm

on November 22, 2012 at 3:20 PM

I never fantasized about identical twins until I read this letter. Hot'

Posted by Clayton on November 22, 2012 at 3:32 PM

Found it! It was called "Nine Lives" in Ursula K Leguin's collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters.

Posted by zivilisierter Wurm

on November 22, 2012 at 3:32 PM

They wrote to prudie as well and she had a follow up from them last week.

Posted by Jenc on November 22, 2012 at 3:36 PM

not sure.... i have a vague feeling it might have been part of a collection of short stories...? i don't think it was ursula le guin, because my parents banned (and confiscated) her books.

Posted by sappho on November 22, 2012 at 3:39 PM

There was an Asimov story about 10 people cloned (half male, half female), but it also involved all of them being psychically linked to each other, such that they could "feel" each other die.

Posted by Griffin on November 22, 2012 at 4:15 PM

David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself explored this as well following a guy who inherits a timebelt and meets up with alternate versions of himself at different ages. Great story.

Posted by mike in oly

on November 22, 2012 at 5:19 PM

I am thankful for that Shakespeare reference.

Posted by singing cynic on November 22, 2012 at 5:40 PM

@10 -- Yes, that's a great story, and I'm glad to see someone mention it. All over creepy in parts, but pretty powerful, too.

Posted by Calpete on November 22, 2012 at 6:29 PM

This girl is obviously a pervert. Now kiss your brother.

Posted by very bad homo on November 22, 2012 at 7:40 PM

Viola and Sebastian! Love it.

Posted by Nitidiuscula on November 22, 2012 at 9:15 PM

As a fraternal twin, I find the very idea disturbing. But then, my twin and I are no Viola and Sebastian. (Also, love that I got the reference without looking it up.)

Posted by Kevin_BGFH

on November 22, 2012 at 10:34 PM

If the sexes were reversed in this question, I'll bet that the comments would be running wild.

Posted by MarkyMark on November 22, 2012 at 11:13 PM

Wish someone would email this guy and ask him all these years later how it turned out. Twin fetish is easy to understand, if a person is hot, two identical hot people is twice as hot. Of course we all like the idea of twins until we have to think about our own siblings then we get creeped out. But to those twins who can get past the whole incest creep out and actually make out or even more, the rest of the world thanks you for fulfilling our fantasies.

Posted by hifiandrew on November 23, 2012 at 1:04 AM

@16- of course they would! Every queer slogger already is, even with a girl thrown in.

Posted by OutInBumF on November 23, 2012 at 1:06 AM

EUUUUUUUUUWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

Honestly, euw. Blägh! Ick!

Posted by JensR

on November 23, 2012 at 1:29 AM

It's amazing how quickly "confusion and disgust" ... morphs into "comprehension and desire" when someone with come-fuck-me eyes/tits/asscheeks, etc., does the propositioning...

I think that's part of what drives some folks nuts about supposedly neutral rules of who can proposition and when: the certain knowledge that people will throw the rules out the window if they wanna bang a given individual, but will retain the right to enforce the rules on other people. When the Watson / Elevator Guy
kerfuffle happened a cynical English friend of mine said, "and if the guy in the lift had made her knickers vibrate we'd never have heard of it", for example.

Posted by seeker6079 on November 23, 2012 at 7:10 AM

we all like the idea of twins until we have to think about our own siblings then we get creeped out

Leaving the field free for us only children. WooHOO!

Posted by seeker6079 on November 23, 2012 at 7:22 AM

@20 The Rebecca Watson / Elevator Guy kerfuffle was a woman pointing out that waiting to corner a women in a isolated elevator to make a move comes across as creepy just given the fact that at 1 in 6 American women will be sexually assaulted in our lifetime. Most of us who have ever been assaulted or had just scary close calls (like that incident) feel that way even if Hollywood hottest or peacenik Jesus did that. She was giving good advice to guys who wonder why they sometimes get shot down.

Posted by jennifer_1972 on November 23, 2012 at 8:16 AM

@20: "When the Watson / Elevator Guy
kerfuffle happened a cynical English friend of mine said, "and if the guy in the lift had made her knickers vibrate we'd never have heard of it", for example."

If the elevator creep had been the kind of guy to make anyone's knickers vibrate, he never would have propositioned her in an elevator at 3am after she'd just given a speech about why you shouldn't do crap like that.

Posted by IWright on November 23, 2012 at 8:31 AM

@20: "kerfuffle happened a cynical English friend of mine said, "and if the guy in the lift had made her knickers vibrate we'd never have heard of it", for example."

Or you idiots could stop approaching women in vulnerable places and making them feel like they're going to be assaulted.

Posted by hot guys can be creeps too on November 23, 2012 at 11:23 AM

Identical twin twice the hots - isn't that kind of thinking extremely disrespectful? That's forever a turnoff...

Posted by fahima on November 24, 2012 at 8:32 AM

I remember in a folklore class once hearing that in the 19th century there were parts of the U.S. where twins were believed to be the same person in two bodies. So you married both at the same time and lived together in a threesome. At the time I thought that was incredibly hot. Come to think of it, I still do.

Posted by Sarah in Olympia on November 25, 2012 at 10:44 AM

Viola and Sebastian...now you're giving me ideas. Not the usual ones for Savage fans, either. :)

Posted by Susan on November 27, 2012 at 4:06 AM

@20 No, just no. Circumstances matter and being cornered in a place you can't escape by a stranger (even an attractive one) might be hot in porn but not in real life. If I think of the hottest guy I've ever been hit on by (and damn he was hot, wish I was single so I could have taken him up on the offer) and then think of him saying the exact same things to be in an enclosed space, at 3am, in a strange city and that would be creepy and scary. There are circumstances where how attractive the other person is does not outweigh the inappropriateness of the situation and doing things that bring to mind sexual assault is a big one.

Posted by Noadi