History Main / YourNormalIsOurTaboo

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** Similar to the TV examples below, one ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' miniseries featured a planet where there are three sexes and it is therefore seen as perverse (by the more conservative elements at least) to have only one sexual partner.
* Parodied in Kieron Gillen's ''ComicBook/IronMan'' run. Tony Stark saves a planet from an alien invasion and gets invited back to bed by one of the planet's many princesses. However, once he removes his mask, she almost vomits in disgust at the abominably disgusting growth on his face: His beard. When she hears that he grew it ''intentionally'', he ends up getting kicked out of the palace, with him sheepishly offering to shave.

** In one episode, Riker [[BoldlyComing falls in love]] with an alien from a species of androgynous hermaphrodites. This turns out to be taboo, not because he's human, but because he's male and she self-identifies as female. The whole thing is a rather {{Anvilicious}} allegory for homosexuality; several writers and cast members felt [[CluelessAesop it would have been braver]] to have the "androgynous" alien played by a man rather than a woman, but ExecutiveMeddling won out.
** An early episode, "Coming of Age," finds Wesley testing for admittance to Starfleet Academy. He encounters a "pop quiz" where he encounters a Zaldan. But he knows enough to answer the Zaldan's accusations with hostility, which actually calms him down. This is because Zaldans believe in laying one's emotions bare; they view courtesy as a facade and consider it insulting.

** The very first encounter with the Ferengi in ''TNG'' reveals that they find females wearing clothes repulsive (or hell, doing anything that would make them anything much more than property). By the time it gets to ''[=DS9=]'', while a good number of them do harbor these attitudes, most of the ones that handle matters off-Ferenginar have enough business savvy to keep it to themselves (not many Alpha Quadrant species/powers that we've seen share or tolerate this attitude to such a degree, ''especially'' the ones with more villainous tendencies...). It seems some of them secretly don't really mind some aspects of this so much, though, and later in ''[=DS9=]'' more progressive minds among the Ferengi begin to give it a serious questioning.
*** Part of their repulsion to clothed women is yet another case of this trope. Until very late in the overall timeline of the series (somewhere between [=DS9=] and Voyager), Ferengi women were considered property, and clothing them made it look like you were hiding something. Women weren't allowed to run a business, own property, or even make purchases on their male relatives' behalf. For the most part, they weren't supposed to leave the house.
*** Gets a hilarious gag in one ''[=DS9=]'' episode where Quark and Rom return home to deal with their mother, who is quite the feminist. They find her in her house, clothed, and react as one would expect any human coming home to find their elderly mother naked.
*** In Ferengi Culture, Marriage isn't tied to procreation. A child is conceived with a contract and the womb is seen as a rental by the father.
*** Ferengi also can be baffled by the fact that most other societies aren't impressed by financial conquests, which they liken to military conquests. Most of the rest of the Galaxy is a post-scarcity society, but the concept of scarcity is a deeply sacred part of Ferengi Culture. And while most cultures do have some concept of money, most really do not care much about it. (Case in point, Klingons still have currency trade for goods and services, but they view using economics to ruin a rival to be underhanded and dishonorable. The accusation of such resulted in one offender being outcast from Klingon Culture. Using economics to buy military might to ruin a rival is much more preferable.)
** One of the reasons that the Original Series Klingon/Romulan alliance fell apart was because, while both were warrior based cultures, the Klingons viewed the Romulans as arrogant and chronic violators of EvilHasStandards, whereas Romulans felt that Klingons had HonorBeforeReason to a fault and were backwards. The Human/Klingon Alliance formed out of the Klingon-Romulan conflict when the Klingons realized that humans may not have the same rules as they did, but they at least ''had'' rules, which was better than Romulans.
* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Trill marriages are "until death do us part" -- only this is in a society where Joined Trill carry memories from the lives of multiple people by way of a symbiont (and it's the host's death, not the symbiont's, that ends the marriage). And it's not just that the previous host's marriage isn't binding on the new host (which ''would'' make sense); Joined Trill are ''expressly prohibited'' from resuming a past host's relationship [[note]]this seems to apply only when both individuals are Trill, or possibly even when they're Joined Trill; other humanoid species are an apparent exception[[/note]]. Jadzia falls prey to this in one episode, falling head over heels in love with another Joined Trill whose past host was married to her past host. Nobody even notices that they are of the same gender, suggesting that [[InformedAttribute homosexuality is no longer taboo]] [[FreeLoveFuture in the future]] -- the ethical/cultural problem is all about them having been husband and wife in a previous life. WordOfGod explained the reasoning for this: if pairs where both partners were joined Trill could continue relationships across multiple host iterations, it would develop into an entrenched aristocratic class of symbiont families.

* In yet another Star Trek example, this time ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'', the B-plot of one episode had delegates of a newly encountered alien race being offended after being given a tour of ''Enterprise'', storming off after ten minutes. It ultimately turns out that what offended them was being shown the mess hall, as the thought of communal eating is repulsive to them. Eating and personal displays of affection should be conducted in private at ''all'' times, hence their declaration of "[[CrazyCulturalComparison you eat like you mate!]]"
** Averted in that race's second appearance, however, because anyone with two functioning brain cells to bang together should have figured out that bringing a dog to a stand of sacred trees was not a good idea no matter what culture they come from.

** In a similar case, an episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has Janeway accidentally pay a grave insult to a member of a race that relies on body language for a good chunk of their communication. How? By putting her [[CharacterTic hands on her hips]], which is their equivalent of the finger.
* In ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', Zhaan's people have no nudity taboo, and she finds it amusing that other cultures do.

** In the season two episode "Acts of Sacrifice", the race known as the Lumati treat sex as casually as they do handshakes (as noted by Dr. Stephen Franklin).
** In the episode "Soul Mates", Minbari Ambassador Delenn reacts with some confusion at the concept of human bathing[[note]]they do clean themselves, using a chemical that removes the upper layer of the epidermis (and frazzling Delenn's new hair); it's the immersion in water that is alien to them[[/note]] (in her words, Minbari do not perspire as humans do, albeit she couldn't finish the elaboration because it made Susan Ivanova uncomfortable). Similarly, after Ivanova washes and fixes Delenn's hair and puts clips on it, Delenn's aide Lennier reacts with restrained horror at the sight of Delenn in hair clips. He asks her if it's painful, and is told that it is "oddly relaxing".

** Also in Babylon 5, dolls and action figures are expected to be anatomically correct in Centauri culture. Thus in one episode where the station opens a gift shop (selling such products as miniature dolls of the station's public figures), Ambassador Londo Mollari is outraged that the doll with his likeness doesn't have certain "attributes" i.e. genitalia (which, for Centauri males, are in the form of '''[[BizarreAlienBiology six prehensile tentacles]]''' protruding from the abdomen). From his perspective, the doll implied that he was a eunuch.

** For the Narn, all books must be copied ''exactly'' from the original manuscript right down to every blemish on the page. Thus it is considered blasphemy to create an English-language copy of the bible-esque Book of G'Quan -- as G'Kar tells Garibaldi when he gives him the book to read, it must be read in the mother tongue or not at all (when Garibaldi protests he can't read Narn, G'Kar responds, "Learn!"). Later, when G'Kar's writings unexpectedly become regarded as a new holy book by the Narns, every copy of the book includes a strange ring mark on one of the pages -- which is actually a coffee stain accidentally left by Garibaldi on the original page (naturally, Garibaldi thinks that it adds character to the book).

** In ''Believers'' we are presented with the 'Children of Time', who do not believe in surgery since any incision of the skin will release the soul. A child whose life Dr. Franklin saves is treated as an abomination by his parents, [[spoiler: who ritually kill the child to reunite him with his soul]]. The episode is focused on Sinclair's warnings to Franklin about infringing upon the parents' religious beliefs, followed by the parents petitioning the other alien ambassadors to intervene, highlighting the cultural differences among the various races--the Minbari overspiritualize the issue and never give a firm answer; the Narns hide behind bureaucracy; the Centauri are willing to intervene (but at a steep up-front price); and the Vorlons refuse to get involved for reasons known (at the time) only to them. These themes are revisited repeatedly in the series.

* 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 to a conservative country or region 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]].

Often a side effect of FetishFuelFuture, used as a way of highlighting its BlueAndOrangeMorality or sometimes BizarreAlienReproduction. A form of CultureClash. Can be a case of DeliberateValuesDissonance. Sometimes done by a PlanetOfHats. For romantic examples, see TrueLoveIsAKink.

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''' TabletopGame/NentirVale setting, the Quom pride themselves on having perfectly symmetrical bodies. If they gain a scar in combat they will scar themselves on the other side to match it. Any Quom with an affliction such as a disease that renders him or her asymmetrical goes into hiding until healed.

* There are many countries, most notably most of the ones in eastern Asia, where speaking ill of any political leader is blasphemous. Either you speak praise about him or her, or you just stay silent, as [[MyCountryRightOrWrong you are expected to have absolute loyalty to your country and prioritize their beliefs over your own]]. In more extreme cases, you pretend you like them. This can come across to westerners, who mock and insult their political leaders all the time, as MyCountryRightOrWrong (and, depending on how you look at it, might actually be that). At the same time, people from these countries who travel to the west are often horrified at how everyone seems to treat their leaders as trash.

* There are many countries, most notably most of the ones in eastern Asia, where speaking ill of any political leader is blasphemous. Either you speak praise about him or her, or you just stay silent, as you are expected to have absolute loyalty to your country and prioritize their beliefs over your own. In more extreme cases, you pretend you like them. This can come across to westerners, who mock and insult their political leaders all the time, as MyCountryRightOrWrong (and, depending on how you look at it, might actually be that). At the same time, people from these countries who travel to the west are often horrified at how everyone seems to treat their leaders as trash.

* The narrator of Creator/JohnWyndham 's "Consider Her Ways" [[TimeTravel time travels]] into the future, about a hundred and fifty years after a plague wiped out all men. She's nearly arrested for talking about sexual dimorphism.
* This is a large part of the Literature/ThousandCultures series, as every conceivable ethnic, religious, ideological and utopian concept culture get their own space colony, and ''then'' humanity figures out instantaneous interstellar transport via the springer, forcing all these disparate cultures to have to deal with each other after centuries of isolation. At one point, we see a group scorned as "starvers" because they practice agriculture as part of their traditions, despite food replicators existing, and sometimes due to poverty or a bad harvest, people do go hungry.

* YaoiGenre ''LightNovel/AiNoKusabi'' adapted from a sci-fi novel has the ruling class of Tanagura Elites that are [[LegoGenetics genetically engineered]] ArtificialHumans to fit their respective social classes. They also have to follow the strict DystopianEdict of NoSexAllowed so any sexual contact with another being is taboo. This isn't so for the rest of the human population and the plot focuses on the relationship one particular Elite has with his SexSlave.

* ''Fanfic/StarTrekPhoenix'': An early stumbling block when Sunset and Twilight are adapting to life on Earth is that the galaxy's humanoid societies are profoundly uncomfortable with nudity -- Equestrian society has no such taboos, and it takes some effort to explain that their preferred way of going around in public would be considered indecent.

* 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.
** According to some sources, the man-boy love was supposed to be refined and spiritual. Actual physical intercourse sullied the relationship (women, on the other hand, were inferior creatures who could be used for physical pleasure).
This was the view of Plato, hence the term "Platonic love". Although, to the Greeks, only penetrative sex was considered intercourse, mutual masturbation was fine.
** Also, being well endowed was considered comical and barbaric -- real men didn't have big dicks (a resemblance to young boys' was preferred, hence the lack of endowment in Michelangelo's ''David'', modeled on Greek statues). Furthermore, a publicly visible penis wasn't all that bad, but [[RagingStiffie having an erection]] was considered shameful.

** According to some sources, the man-boy love was supposed to be refined and spiritual. Actual physical intercourse sullied the relationship (women, on the other hand, were inferior creatures who could be used for physical pleasure). Although, to the Greeks, only penetrative sex is considered intercourse, mutual masturbation is fine.

** Can be mildly inverted in some crowds in the West -- say you don't believe in sex before marriage, and they'll say something like "What? Seriously?" Moreso in some circles where promiscuity is the ''expectation'', namely athletes and musicians. Athletes who are forthright about their virginity, such as Tim Tebow or Lolo Jones, have been criticized on that basis.

* Due to the fact that their massive size makes finding a suitable body of water difficult, most dragons in ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'' consider it perfectly acceptable to lick each other clean. When Tohru admits that she's done it with Kanna before, Kobayashi points that it's really lewd by human standards.

** There was a... [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0394.html little misunderstanding]] between Nale and his {{succubus}} girlfriend over the issue of jealousy. [[spoiler:Which Elan managed to exploit later.]]

* In May 1997, [[https://www.google.com/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5117897/amp/Mom-jailed-leaving-baby-OUTSIDE-restaurant-speaks-out.html Danish actress Anete Sørenson]] left her infant daughter outside of a Manhattan restaurant while she had a drink. She was arrested for child endangerment, spent 36 hours in jail, and her daughter was placed in foster care for four days until the situation was resolved. There was outrage at her actions from Americans who found her behavior highly stupid, irresponsible, and dangerous... and outrage at her arrest from Danes, who repeatedly stated that such a practice is very common in Denmark. A recent TikTok [[https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/footage-babies-left-sleeping-alone-181621489.html article]] followed up on this.

* In May 1997, [[https://www.google.com/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5117897/amp/Mom-jailed-leaving-baby-OUTSIDE-restaurant-speaks-out.html Danish actress Anete Sørenson]] left her infant daughter outside of a Manhattan restaurant while she had a drink. She was arrested for child endangerment, spent 36 hours in jail, and her daughter was placed in foster care for four days until the situation was resolved. There was outrage at her actions from Americans who found her behavior highly stupid, irresponsible, and dangerous... and outrage at her arrest from Danes, who repeatedly stated that such a practice is very common in Denmark.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', having the hots for a BlueSkinnedSpaceBabe (or an armor-plated ProudWarriorRace guy, or the rasp of scales against your flesh, or wondering just what IS under that quarian environmental suit) is quite understandable, for the most part, though most permanent couples tend to be same-race for obvious reasons. Then we get the asari, who consider it a ''horrible'' taboo to actually get pregnant with another asari (not have sex, just a baby), and look down upon "purebloods", the children of such unions. During the first game and most of the second game, it seems like this is just a cultural thing, even having it explicitly stated that it's because they feel it "adds nothing to the mix" to not incorporate some alien DNA. Then you meet Morinth, an asari with a genetic defect that results in the death of anyone she has sex with, and it turns out that same-race breeding for them drastically ups the chances of things turning out ''very'' badly. In ancient times, the Ardat-Yakshi, asari with the aforementioned genetic defect, ruled Asari nations as god-queens, [[HumanSacrifice sacrifices and all.]]

* In Chapter 20 of ''Beast Complex'', which is the lesser-known sister series of ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'' and an anthology series set in the same universe, one of our protagonists for the evening[[note]]Since even your average ''Beastars'' fan hasn't heard of this series, a brief summary of the formula is "two animals of radically different backgrounds learn they're NotSoDifferent".[[/note]] is an Otter who was hired by a company on land because he's fluid in both Japanese and Seaspeak. However, he often brings in fish for lunch. While eating meat is seen as normal in the sea, it's heavily frowned upon on land to the point where Carnivores have to resort to eating black market meat supplied from hospitals and funeral homes or risk going mad with hunger and actually killing someone. His co-workers compare his favorite snack of dried sardines to [[WouldHurtAChild an entire industry where babies are slaughtered enmasse and sold for the public consumption]] but they're too scared of him to say anything.

* In ''Literature/LineOfDelirium'', one of the hundreds of planets in the Human Empire is Maretta. The Marettans are known for a cultural quirk, where they consider eating to be a repulsive and shameful (but, of course, necessary) act akin to defecation. As such, one never eats in front of others. A son typically serves his father the food and makes sure to stand behind him in order to avoid seeing the repulsive act. Only after the father is done, the son is allowed to clean up and eat any remains. Within the walls of his palace, TheEmperor can pick and choose whichers laws he likes from among the planets in his empire. And those preferences can change at any moment. Currently, the Emperor is into [[{{Squick}} prepubescent girls]], using the mores of the planet Culthos as a justification.

** CountryMatters: The word "cunt" is considered highly misogynistic in the United States, while in England and Australia, it has considerably less stigma and is generally just considered a bit coarse. The French equivalent is also pretty tame unless being used specifically to describe a woman's genitals.

* The Japanese adult industry (particularly the {{hentai}} side of it) produces some of the most depraved, extreme, often sickening, sometimes even horrifying pornographic content in the history of mankind, much of which (particularly the LoliconAndShotacon) is ''illegal'' in many other countries... but the genitals always have to be censored. ''Always.'' It doesn't matter if the material is like something out of a particularly extreme rendition of TheAristocrats, the penis and vagina have to have at least ''some'' token censorship over them to comply with the law, whether it be black bars or pixelization, [[SkewedPriorities otherwise it would be "obscene"]]. It's a constant source of irritation for western hentai fans, and the first question usually asked whenever any hentai work is given a western release is "Is it uncensored?" This sometimes even extends to spoken words as well, leading to hilarious scenes where a woman is begging to have all sorts of excessively lewd and depraved things done to her, but the word "manko" ("pussy") will still be inexplicably bleeped out. Sometimes they even bleep out "chinpo" ("penis"), although that's less common.

** Eating dogs or cats is considered normal in parts of East Asia and West Africa (as long as they are dogs and cats you ''own'' and not ''stolen'' from others), but in places who value pets such as the West or even other parts of Asia or Africa, this is ''terrifying'' because how could you eat those ''pets''?! And it should be noted that even though it's mainly older generations (people who were born pre-1990s] who still eat dogs due to ValuesDissonance and the fact that many younger people find those animals unappetizing nowadays, it is still normal and not frowned upon in said regions.

* Recreational drugs. It would take too long to go into any detail, but very generally, the same drugs that are socially acceptable or may only get you a slap on the wrist to take in Europe might carry a significant penalty in America, and might be punishable with life imprisonment or death in many Asian countries.

*** Within the country, swearing morays vary wildly. Swearing, and religious swearing in particular, is considered more taboo in certain corners, such as the South, than the others, such as the coasts.