My Eyes! Columbia Professor Has ‘Consensual’ Incest With Daughter

You know how some people are so book smart that they don’t understand or follow the rules of regular society, and don’t think there’s anything wrong with that? Well, it’s one thing when the academically inclined forget about personal hygiene or take the teachings of Karl Marx too far. It’s another entirely when they start having incestuous relationships with THEIR DAUGHTERS AND CLAIMING THAT THE RELATIONSHIP WAS CONSENSUAL.

Congratulations David Epstein. You just made Woody Allen look good.

According to the Columbia Spectator, the 46 year old political science professor was charged this week with having a sexual relationship with his 24 year old daughter. Epstein’s daughter was an adult at the time, and the relationship “appears to have been consensual.”

But here’s a reason this kind of incest is not condoned (aside from all of the birth defect/procreation issues) – because the relationship between parents and children is codependent in a way that could never breed a healthy sexual relationship.  Let’s loook at the Woody Allen example for a second. Woody Allen is pretty categorically known as a creep these days for leaving his wife Mia Farrow to marry his daughter Soon Yi. AND SHE’S NOT EVEN HIS REAL DAUGHTER. She’s adopted. And still the stigma is there. Because bedding your daughter is taking advantage of the parental power dynamic in a truly twisted way.

According to Epstein’s lawyer:

“We ask that everyone remember that he is innocent until proven otherwise and that these allegations are nothing more than allegations.”

And that’s fine. If Epstein is totally innocent, I apologize for this post. But if he ever had sex with his daughter, that comment makes no sense. There’s just not an excuse for parental incest.

PS. Yahoo blogger Lindsay Robertson wins this whole story with the following tweet:

PPS: Damn you David Epstein, for forcing me dwell on the fact that the word consensual has the word “sensual” in it while writing this post. Now I can’t stop connecting the word “sensual” with incest. Do. Not. Want.