History Main / YourNormalIsOurTaboo

* In modern Western culture, premarital sex is accepted, and even considered normal. Couples can live together without being married, and even raise a family like that. One can go home from a nightclub with someone he/she has just met and have sex. But go over to a conservative Muslim country, or some other place with deeply-entrenched traditional values regarding marriage and sex, and such behavior is frowned upon at best, and (in some cases) a [[DeathBySex capital offense]].

* In the RobertAHeinlein novel, ''Space Cadet'' the Venusians consider it obscene to eat in public.

Sometimes {{Played for Laughs}}, other times as serious drama.

** And this is relatively recent development even in the West. Sex has been SeriousBusiness in most cultures for most of the written history.

* In one ''This Modern World'' strip by Tom Tomorrow, centuries in the future, there are people known as "breeders". We see them chanting "We're straight/ We mate/ Get used to it." A mainstream man says "Perverts," shuddering.

* ''Midnighter'' is regarded in a friendly manner by time-traveling allies from the future. Not because he is gay, because he is not bisexual. In the future, everyone is bi.

* In ''[[DrowTales]]'', bisexuality and multiple partners is the norm for Drows, while pure heterosexuals like Zala'ess and her hubby Sabrror, and pure homosexuals like Snadhya'runes and Mel'anarch are considered abnormal.

* In ''CulpaInnata'', [[strike:marriage]] nuptual contracts are seen as perversions and are illegal in the World Union. Only [[WretchedHive rogue states]] follow such barbaric customs. As for being with the same sexual partner for long periods of time, most people consider this strange. Families also don't exist, as children are sent off to Child Development Centers until they are adults. This leaves adults to make as much money and get as much sex as possible. Oh, and it is women who are expected to hit on men, ask them out, pay for dates, and initiate sex. This is often a problem for men who immigrate from rogue states, who still follow the old traditions. Their advances often put World Union women off, so they tend to go after women who have also emigrated.

* In ancient Greece, a "Real Man" would find his pleasure with teenage boys, since apparently, that was the macho thing to do. Women were mainly for procreation, and a man who ''preferred'' to sleep with them was considered something of a sissy, or just downright weird.

[[folder:New Media]]
* The {{imageboard}} [=4chan=], home to all manner of horrific {{NSFW}} material, considers the single most heinous sexual practice to be...''[[spoiler: consensual sex in the missionary position]]''. Definitely {{Played for Laughs}}.
** That shit gets even more [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel horrifying]] when [[spoiler: done for the purpose of reproduction.]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* In ancient Greece, a "Real Man" would find his pleasure with teenage boys, since apparently, that was the macho thing to do. Women were mainly for procreation, and a man who ''preferred'' to sleep with them was considered something of a sissy, or just downright weird.

* In ''{{Feng Shui}}'''s 2056 juncture, people of different races getting together is the norm. Same-race relationships, on the other hand, are considered "racist" and are rather frowned upon.

Sometimes PlayedForLaughs, other times as serious drama.

Often a side effect of FetishFuelFuture, used as a way of highlighting its BlueAndOrangeMorality or sometimes BizarreAlienReproduction. A form of CultureClash.

!!!Examples

[[AC:{{Comics}}]]
* In one ''This Modern World'' strip by Tom Tomorrow, centuries in the future, there are people known as "breeders." We see them chanting "We're straight/ We mate/ Get used to it." A mainstream man says "Perverts," shuddering.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* The WheelOfTime has several examples, but one of the most noted is the difference between Aiel and 'Wetlanders'. To Aiel, nakedness is not taboo, they use co-ed sweat tents as a fill-in for showers in their desert homeland, Wetlanders find this scandalous. And this trope occurs for both sides, to Aiel displaying affection in public is taboo. Kissing your spouse with others watching would apparently be viewed similar to how a Wetlander might view having sex with them in public.
* In ''TheLastAndFirstMen'' by Olaf Stapledon, the last human society's favourite pastime is highly refined eroticism of various stripes. However, food consumption is so surrounded by rituals and taboos drinking using a straw in public would be considered shocking except in the most liberal and emancipated circles.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In one episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Riker falls in love with an alien woman who gets really hated by her own people for their love. Not because he's a human, but because he's a man. Her culture require her and her partner to both be intergender. So, it's like inverted homophobia ''and'' inverted heterophobia. a fear of having a gender at all. Which is also a cisphobia, an inverted transphobia.

[[AC:History]]
* In ancient Greece, a 'Real Man' would find his pleasure with teenage boys, since apparently, that was the macho thing to do. Women were mainly for procreation, and a man who ''preferred'' to sleep with them was considered something of a sissy, or just downright weird.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* in ''OrderOfTheStick'', Xykon refers to people sexually attracted to living humans as "disgusting biophiliacs". While his statement is about himself, that he's not that kind of person, he'd probably be just as grossed out by living biophiliacs: That the thought of two humans making out with each other is just as disgusting to him as the thought of two liches making out with each other is to the average living human.
* In ''{{Homestuck}}'', a perfectly ordinary bucket in our culture has some...''dirty'' connotations in [[AllTrollsAreDifferent Troll society.]]
** On the other hand, their reproduction system involves a centralized mother making each generation from the genetic material of all the previous one, making "one diabolical incestuous slurry" the standard, so they don't understand our taboo of incest.

[[AC:{{Web Original}}]]
* The {{imageboard}} [=4chan=], home to all manner of horrific {{NSFW}} material, considers the single most heinous sexual practice to be...''[[spoiler: consensual sex in the missionary position]]''. Definitely PlayedForLaughs.
** That shit gets even more [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel horrifying]] when [[spoiler: done for the purpose of reproduction.]]
*** Damn now I am tempted to troll 4chan with this information and I don't even use image boards.
*** YES. Must...troll...4chan...with this...
----

* Damn now I am tempted to troll 4chan with this information and I don't even use image boards.

In ''TheLastAndFirstMen'' by Olaf Stapledon, the last human society's favourite pastime is highly refined eroticism of various stripes. However, food consumption is so surrounded by rituals and taboos drinking using a straw in public would be considered shocking except in the most liberal and emancipated circles.