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Into the Omegaverse · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie. And Samantha. And welcome to Stuff
0:08
Speaker 1: I Never Told You, a production of iHeartRadio. And today
0:19
Speaker 1: we are talking about a popular fan fiction trope called
0:25
Speaker 1: Omegaverse or Alpha Beta Omega or ABO. I'm going to
0:29
Speaker 1: be largely using ABO. That exists... across all fandoms. This
0:36
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily a content warning, but I do want to
0:40
Speaker 1: prepare everyone. We are going to be talking about biological determinism,
0:46
Speaker 1: themes of sexual assault and autonomy, and just some things
0:49
Speaker 1: that are an absolute mess to dissect. But give me
0:55
Speaker 1: the time, and I will dissect it. And it's worth
0:59
Speaker 1: talking about, I promise. You can learn more about the
1:06
Speaker 1: history specifically and examples specifically on the episode we did.
1:11
Speaker 1: It was a book club episode called Dubcon. We did
1:14
Speaker 1: a whole section about ABO. I also think this is
1:19
Speaker 1: related to women heart monsters. The episode we did on
1:23
Speaker 1: that about kind of those romance novels about women wanting
1:27
Speaker 1: to be with Bigfoot and stuff like that. Yes. Yes.
1:36
Speaker 1: I'm going to be real with you. This is going
1:40
Speaker 1: to make a lot of you uncomfortable. And some of
1:42
Speaker 1: it makes me uncomfortable. But I understand why it exists.
1:47
Speaker 1: And it has a lot to say about gender dynamics
1:50
Speaker 1: and how they function in our society. So I am
1:56
Speaker 1: asking for patience. and understanding, because I really do think
2:01
Speaker 1: this sheds a light on how people, especially younger people,
2:05
Speaker 1: and perhaps especially younger women, are interpreting these things, these
2:10
Speaker 1: gender dynamics, or how they're managing societal and legal structures
2:15
Speaker 1: that treat women as lesser. And that's what we're going
2:19
Speaker 1: to get into at the end. We've got to go
2:21
Speaker 1: through some basics first, but that's what we're going to
2:23
Speaker 1: talk about. Also, just a heads up, because of the
2:26
Speaker 1: subject matter, This episode is kind of PG-13-ish. We're not
2:32
Speaker 1: going to get into detailed stuff, but just to put
2:35
Speaker 1: that out there. On top of that, there's a lot
2:40
Speaker 1: of this that's very heteronormative, despite having plenty of queer
2:45
Speaker 1: relationships and a history of queer relationships. That is something
2:51
Speaker 1: else we will discuss later. This is more complex of
2:55
Speaker 1: a topic than we're going to get into now, but
2:58
Speaker 1: some stories have an added layer of discrimination or complicated
3:01
Speaker 1: gender dynamics and expectations when it comes to trans characters, too.
3:07
Speaker 1: But yes, today we are talking about the fanfiction trope
3:12
Speaker 1: Alpha Beta Omega, or ABO, which, yes, we did discuss
3:17
Speaker 1: in our book club episode on DEPCOM. If you did
3:20
Speaker 1: not listen to that episode, Dubcon refers to dubious consent,
3:26
Speaker 1: which can look a lot of different ways. But in
3:28
Speaker 1: the case of ABO, it is that your biology is
3:31
Speaker 1: removing your consent or your ability to make an informed decision. Generally,
3:38
Speaker 1: ABO can look a lot of ways, which we will
3:44
Speaker 1: break down. But just know it often involves some elements
3:49
Speaker 1: of dubious consent. Plenty of people really, really don't like it.
3:55
Speaker 1: And in some communities, it is called dog f * * *
3:58
Speaker 1: ing rape world. That being said, there is story after
4:05
Speaker 1: story about bucking the ABO system. So it's an ABO
4:08
Speaker 1: story about kind of defying the ABO standards, which we'll
4:14
Speaker 1: talk about too. Another thing I have read, and on
4:20
Speaker 1: some occasions enjoyed, ABO fanfiction. But it's not generally my thing.
4:25
Speaker 1: I can see why it makes people uncomfortable. It frequently
4:30
Speaker 1: involves inpreg, which is men getting pregnant. Which I like
4:36
Speaker 1: in terms of men should have to feel like get
4:39
Speaker 1: pregnant too. Like Alien level, we've talked about this in
4:43
Speaker 1: our Feminist Movie Friday episode about Alien. the movie. But personally,
4:49
Speaker 1: that's not something I'm into reading about. Actually, pregnancy in
4:55
Speaker 1: general is not my thing. And I think as of
4:59
Speaker 1: a couple years ago, it was like the least favorite
5:04
Speaker 1: tag on AO3. Archive of Our Own is one of
5:08
Speaker 1: the biggest fan fiction sites. And it Pregnancy was at
5:13
Speaker 1: the bottom. That's not what people wanted to read about.
5:17
Speaker 1: So if I do read ABO, I generally read male-slash-male ABO,
5:24
Speaker 1: where both characters are either independent, I put in quotes
5:30
Speaker 1: because we'll talk about that later, or they're fighting the system.
5:33
Speaker 1: They're not conforming to how their secondary gender looks. I
5:41
Speaker 1: don't like straight fan fiction. I've discovered this. I have decided.
5:45
Speaker 1: I think this has been a journey. I've talked it
5:47
Speaker 1: out with you. I've just decided that I just don't
5:50
Speaker 1: like it. But I have read women slash women. But
5:55
Speaker 1: most of where I encounter ABO is men slash men.
5:59
Speaker 1: I think this was the case for most ABO fanfic
6:03
Speaker 1: in the early days when the dominant pairing was between
6:07
Speaker 1: a male alpha and a male omega. But now I
6:11
Speaker 1: hear about it a lot more with straight couples, too.
6:14
Speaker 1: I see they're getting up to it much more. So
6:19
Speaker 1: I know for sure it has grown and evolved since
6:22
Speaker 1: we last talked about it. On top of that, these
6:25
Speaker 1: stories are generally smutty. But they don't have to be.
6:30
Speaker 1: I have read several that are just sweet. Most of
6:33
Speaker 1: the ones I read don't have sex in them at all.
6:36
Speaker 1: That is a big thing I keep coming back to
6:38
Speaker 1: with fanfiction. There is a lot of smut, but there's
6:41
Speaker 1: a lot that is not. I think it gets the
6:46
Speaker 1: rap that that's what's happening. That's all that's happening in there,
6:49
Speaker 1: and that's not true. But, okay, enough stalling. Because I
6:55
Speaker 1: have put this episode off for a while. If you
6:57
Speaker 1: listen back to that ABO, to the DubCon episode, I
7:01
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, we should come back and talk about that.
7:03
Speaker 1: That was years ago. Years. But all right. What is it?
7:08
Speaker 1: Where to begin? According to the book DubCon, ABO fanfiction
7:13
Speaker 1: got its start with supernatural real person fiction. Though it
7:18
Speaker 1: has pretty obvious roots in bestiality fiction. since a good
7:23
Speaker 1: chunk of these stories rely at least somewhat on the
7:26
Speaker 1: behavior and anatomy of wolves or dogs. Yes, so let's
7:31
Speaker 1: break down some of the basics, and then we'll get
7:34
Speaker 1: into some specifics and variants. And then to wrap up,
7:37
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about some of the issues and
7:39
Speaker 1: anxieties that this trope highlights. First, We need to start
7:53
Speaker 1: with the secondary genders. This is kind of the whole
7:57
Speaker 1: basis of the Omegaverse. Alpha, Beta, and Omega. There are
8:04
Speaker 1: subtypes within these, some of which we'll touch on, but
8:08
Speaker 1: those are the main ones. We're also talking about mostly
8:12
Speaker 1: human biology today because it's fan fiction and sometimes people
8:17
Speaker 1: write about aliens and they have a whole different thing
8:19
Speaker 1: going on. Tentacle porn. Yeah, sure. Definitely. So, secondary genders.
8:28
Speaker 1: I'm going to use a lot of broad generalizations here
8:31
Speaker 1: for what most of ABO looks like, but it can
8:35
Speaker 1: vary wildly. Generally, there are men, women, and non-binary people
8:42
Speaker 1: who present a secondary gender around the time of adolescence.
8:46
Speaker 1: I've always thought about it similar to a period. It
8:49
Speaker 1: typically involves physical changes and that can be pretty painful
8:54
Speaker 1: depending on what you're reading. I've even read some that
8:58
Speaker 1: are body horror level changes, especially for male omegas that
9:03
Speaker 1: have to essentially grow a uterus and female alphas that
9:07
Speaker 1: have to grow a penis or some kind of equivalent
9:10
Speaker 1: of that. In some stories, it's smooth sailing for betas.
9:17
Speaker 1: But anyway, alphas and omegas, which are usually rarer than betas,
9:21
Speaker 1: also develop heightened senses and a scent unique to them
9:26
Speaker 1: that changes based on mood. So if you're angry or scared,
9:30
Speaker 1: it usually becomes bitter, and everyone else can smell it.
9:33
Speaker 1: So everyone knows this. Same if you're aroused, embarrassingly. And
9:40
Speaker 1: I had a good conversation with my friend last night
9:43
Speaker 1: about what we think our sense would be, because it's not...
9:49
Speaker 1: It's not your favorite scent. It's what you're... It's supposed
9:51
Speaker 1: to represent your personality. uh so it's usually alphas are
9:57
Speaker 1: like pine and smoke and uh an omega is like
10:04
Speaker 1: the sweetest caramel chocolate freshly baked bread stuff like that
10:10
Speaker 1: um i haven't landed on an answer i don't know
10:13
Speaker 1: i don't know but an important question to ask Let
10:20
Speaker 1: me think. I feel like a lemongrass would be involved.
10:23
Speaker 1: I think lemongrass would be a great one. I think
10:26
Speaker 1: lemongrass would be involved for you. Oh, yes. I would
10:29
Speaker 1: love that. I think so. But this is also like,
10:34
Speaker 1: then you're asking, where would I? I definitely wouldn't be
10:37
Speaker 1: an alpha. I would be a beta or an omega.
10:45
Speaker 1: I'll think about it.
10:46
Speaker 2: I feel like I'd be a cinnamon. Ooh, cinnamon is good.
10:51
Speaker 2: Cinnamon is good. It's got like a little spice to it, yeah.
10:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. But it's still kind of sweet.
10:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
11:02
Speaker 1: Everybody think about this. It's a fun thought experiment. It is.
11:06
Speaker 1: So once you get this scent, you can scent people,
11:12
Speaker 1: which is essentially you're covering them in your scent. which
11:16
Speaker 1: can be anything from an act of comfort, aggression, or claim.
11:21
Speaker 1: Another way to claim someone is through a mating bite
11:25
Speaker 1: on the neck, a typically permanent mark that indicates to
11:29
Speaker 1: the world that you are taken. Your designation often changes
11:35
Speaker 1: the way people treat you. And usually, friend and family
11:39
Speaker 1: groups form packs that look out for each other and
11:42
Speaker 1: are very protective of each other, However, the implication is
11:46
Speaker 1: usually that unless the Omega finds a mate within the pack,
11:51
Speaker 1: they will have to leave the pack one day to
11:54
Speaker 1: join their most likely new Alpha's pack because there is
11:59
Speaker 1: usually a head Alpha and a head Omega to run
12:02
Speaker 1: all of these things. All right. Does that make sense?
12:06
Speaker 1: Are you with me so far? Yes. All right. Perfect.
12:12
Speaker 1: So let's get into the secondary genders. starting with alphas,
12:16
Speaker 1: because they are generally at the top. They are the
12:19
Speaker 1: most respected. They have the most power, societally speaking. Alphas
12:23
Speaker 1: are typically men and masculine men at that, and typically
12:28
Speaker 1: men who are taller and broader. They are associated with
12:32
Speaker 1: more traditionally masculine traits and behaviors, like aggression and dominance.
12:37
Speaker 1: They usually take the lead in any courting or sex.
12:41
Speaker 1: And let me tell you, that courting thing is a
12:43
Speaker 1: whole process. It's a whole thing. And they are charged
12:48
Speaker 1: with protecting or controlling their omega. They are viewed as strong,
12:54
Speaker 1: not to be messed with, unless it's another alpha over
12:58
Speaker 1: an omega. Then you can get into something. It's usually
13:03
Speaker 1: pretty possessive and involves an instinctive growling. There are other
13:09
Speaker 1: behaviors they exhibit too, like the alpha voice, which is
13:14
Speaker 1: a command voice that they can use to force submission
13:17
Speaker 1: or abeyance, usually on omegas and betas, not necessarily on
13:22
Speaker 1: other alphas. It doesn't always work, but it usually does.
13:27
Speaker 1: In some iterations, there are different classes of alpha, like
13:31
Speaker 1: prime or an enigma, who have more powerful alpha voices
13:36
Speaker 1: that can supersede other alphas, then you don't want to
13:42
Speaker 1: mess with the prime or an enigma. And they're usually
13:44
Speaker 1: seen as very violent. They're not necessarily violent, but that's
13:47
Speaker 1: how they're viewed. Also, in the heat of the moment, fun,
13:52
Speaker 1: sometimes an alpha and omega will refer to each other
13:56
Speaker 1: as alpha and omega, recognizing their place. So that's what
13:59
Speaker 1: they'll just call each other. Canine teeth that descend when
14:04
Speaker 1: they are angry are in the act of placing the
14:07
Speaker 1: mating bite to There is a lot of posturing between
14:10
Speaker 1: other alphas in general, so sometimes when teeth come out,
14:13
Speaker 1: it's like another alpha is in your territory. Teeth come out.
14:18
Speaker 1: An instinct for chase. This one isn't discussed as much,
14:23
Speaker 1: but it involves an instinctive need to chase an omega,
14:27
Speaker 1: especially one in heat, which we'll get into, or one
14:31
Speaker 1: that the alpha feels they have a claim to or
14:33
Speaker 1: that they're courting. This is related to the newer alphas
14:38
Speaker 1: or at least newly more popular hybrid stories, many of
14:42
Speaker 1: those that are ABO, that involve predator and prey species
14:46
Speaker 1: like werehares. So that is when you're like a human
14:53
Speaker 1: hybrid with a bunny, so you have bunny ears, and
14:56
Speaker 1: then there's that hare, and then there's a wolf hybrid
15:01
Speaker 1: who has the tail and the ears, the were, and
15:04
Speaker 1: so predator-prey. Uh-huh. Yes. Finally, alphas experience semi-regular ruts, which
15:13
Speaker 1: take place over a series of days and involve intense
15:17
Speaker 1: sexual arousal and physical symptoms like sweating, hot flashes, intensified scent.
15:23
Speaker 1: Some stories have ruts start not sexual, but they later
15:27
Speaker 1: become sexual. There's an understanding it will become sexual, whatever
15:32
Speaker 1: it is. It is when their fertility is at It's highest.
15:40
Speaker 1: As I said, it can really look a whole host
15:42
Speaker 1: of ways. Here are just some that I see the most.
15:45
Speaker 1: And actually, when I was researching this, I, like, not
15:48
Speaker 1: to toot my own horn, but I'm, like, at the
15:51
Speaker 1: forefront of, there's not a lot of academic stuff written
15:55
Speaker 1: about ABO fan fiction, so... You're getting what I have seen, experienced,
16:05
Speaker 1: and talked to my friends about. Original research. Yes. And
16:08
Speaker 1: it was discussed in the book Dubcon, but yes. This
16:12
Speaker 1: is mostly me writing. Oh, oh. So betas. Betas generally
16:20
Speaker 1: come next in the power structure. And I do apologize
16:25
Speaker 1: for all the qualifiers in this episode, but when I
16:28
Speaker 1: say it can look a hundred different ways. That's not
16:30
Speaker 1: an exaggeration. But in some stories, omegas are above betas.
16:36
Speaker 1: They're often more prized, at the very least. But in
16:39
Speaker 1: the simplest terms, betas generally stay the same after they present.
16:43
Speaker 1: It's sort of a neutral, secondary gender. Sometimes they get
16:48
Speaker 1: the ability to scent. Sometimes they don't. Most of the
16:52
Speaker 1: population is usually a beta. And that brings us to omegas.
16:58
Speaker 1: the traditionally more feminine secondary gender, and I mean that
17:02
Speaker 1: in a very heteronormative and societal way, but they have
17:08
Speaker 1: less power in society. They are usually smaller and prettier physically.
17:12
Speaker 1: They're gentler, and they have the babies and the maternal instincts.
17:19
Speaker 1: They're more submissive, and in a lot of variants, they
17:23
Speaker 1: have a mat and a submissive position that from what
17:27
Speaker 1: I understand, looks a lot like downward dog. So they'll
17:31
Speaker 1: get on the mat and do that. That being said,
17:34
Speaker 1: as mentioned at the top, plenty of these stories are
17:37
Speaker 1: about breaking out of or resisting these norms in which
17:41
Speaker 1: you get the so-called independent omega. Depending on the story, though,
17:47
Speaker 1: the omega needs an alpha to tame them, or at
17:52
Speaker 1: least that is what the alpha thinks. Omegas are usually
17:57
Speaker 1: virginal and innocent. Not always, but usually. When an omega presents,
18:03
Speaker 1: they smell sweet and appealing. Their looks usually soften or
18:08
Speaker 1: somehow become more beautiful. And they become extremely desirable, especially
18:14
Speaker 1: for alphas. In some fics, male omegas aren't necessarily desirable
18:19
Speaker 1: and are seen as abominations. In others, they're more desirable.
18:24
Speaker 1: Omegas are typically viewed as someone or something, honestly, with
18:28
Speaker 1: how much they're objectified and viewed as baby-making machines to
18:33
Speaker 1: be hunted, protected, possessed. So in a lot of cases,
18:37
Speaker 1: this involves them wearing a collar, either forcibly or in
18:44
Speaker 1: some cases as like a promise ring situation from an
18:49
Speaker 1: alpha to protect them from a mating bite. or to
18:56
Speaker 1: claim them in the future. They usually wear soft and
18:59
Speaker 1: revealing clothes. Well, in a lot of the ones I read,
19:04
Speaker 1: they don't, but a lot of times they do. And
19:07
Speaker 1: jewelry essentially being a visual pretty trophy for their alpha
19:12
Speaker 1: to be proud of. Sometimes it's because the omega likes it,
19:17
Speaker 1: like likes the jewelry and the soft clothes. And sometimes...
19:22
Speaker 1: It's like a sign of respect, like the alpha can
19:26
Speaker 1: provide for you. When we're talking about behaviors, omega's display,
19:31
Speaker 1: here are a few of the big ones. Nesting. They
19:34
Speaker 1: have the instinct to nest, which means they will gather
19:38
Speaker 1: clothing and blankets from loved ones that have their scent
19:41
Speaker 1: on them and weave those together to form a nest
19:44
Speaker 1: where they feel safe and comfortable. It is a courtesy
19:48
Speaker 1: not to enter the nest unless expressly invited. Calming scents.
19:55
Speaker 1: So they're usually the emotional glue of whatever pack they're
20:01
Speaker 1: in and they can use their scent to calm emotions. Drops.
20:06
Speaker 1: And a mega drop is when they basically shut down
20:11
Speaker 1: in response to danger. They're like a dead body, or
20:15
Speaker 1: at the very least, a barely functional, extremely distressed body.
20:20
Speaker 1: It's dangerous. It's a very dangerous thing to come out
20:24
Speaker 1: of a drop, and Omega needs to feel safe, or
20:27
Speaker 1: some sort of medical intervention is involved. And Alpha can
20:32
Speaker 1: foster this feeling of safety using their scent and pheromones,
20:36
Speaker 1: the nest, and a safe space. Omega headspace is when
20:42
Speaker 1: an alpha uses their scent and a few other things
20:45
Speaker 1: to make an omega's mind feel like it's full of
20:48
Speaker 1: cotton candy, like they can't concentrate or they really can't
20:51
Speaker 1: function without their alpha. Omegas can also produce a whine,
20:59
Speaker 1: like a whining sound that alerts people, usually alphas, that
21:02
Speaker 1: they need help. And finally, heat's Heats are the complement
21:09
Speaker 1: to alpha's ruts. So heats are a semi-regular time when
21:13
Speaker 1: omegas experience increased sensitivity and arousal and fertility and produce
21:19
Speaker 1: something called slick, which is essentially lube. This is a
21:23
Speaker 1: very vulnerable time for an omega that they typically spend
21:27
Speaker 1: in their nest. Their scent becomes stronger unless they're wearing
21:33
Speaker 1: scent patches, um, We'll talk about that more in a second.
21:37
Speaker 1: That's kind of like a type of birth control. But anyway,
21:42
Speaker 1: everyone knows that they're in heat unless they're wearing these patches.
21:46
Speaker 1: And probably even then, honestly. But they also make it
21:50
Speaker 1: harder to think clearly. Heats do. And they have a
21:53
Speaker 1: desire for an alpha to not them. N-K-N-O-T. This refers
22:00
Speaker 1: to how wolf genitalia works. And I'm not going to
22:03
Speaker 1: go into that. Even I could, but I won't. But
22:07
Speaker 1: once the knot has expanded inside an omega, they have
22:11
Speaker 1: to wait for it to deflate and a lot of
22:14
Speaker 1: sperm is pumped out. Which brings us to babies. All
22:18
Speaker 1: the babies. Interesting, because as I said, one of the
22:23
Speaker 1: least popular tags is pregnancy. But there is a huge
22:27
Speaker 1: breeding kink in the world of ABO. While some stories
22:32
Speaker 1: treat it as more of a role-play situation, in a
22:36
Speaker 1: lot of them, the goal is to have babies, and
22:39
Speaker 1: a lot of babies, like 11 babies. That being said,
22:43
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about how this reflects on our
22:48
Speaker 1: views on abortion and pregnancy, but also infertility and people
22:52
Speaker 1: who don't want kids. That's my brief overview of... The
23:00
Speaker 1: ABO world. And I'm telling you, this was a very
23:04
Speaker 1: difficult thing to try to wrangle up. This brings us
23:08
Speaker 1: to some of the issues that I think it touches
23:10
Speaker 1: on that I wanted to highlight. One of the main
23:17
Speaker 1: ones when I think about why I can get uncomfortable
23:22
Speaker 1: with it is the biological determinism of it. So biological
23:30
Speaker 1: determinism means that your biology determines behaviors. So instead of
23:36
Speaker 1: taking into account societal factors and conditioning, biological determinism argues
23:41
Speaker 1: that it's innate, inherent, scientific, genetic. As you can imagine,
23:46
Speaker 1: this has been used in a huge range of negative
23:49
Speaker 1: ways when it comes to eugenics, when it comes to gender, race,
23:53
Speaker 1: and recently against trans people. So it makes sense that
23:58
Speaker 1: this is one of the first things people point out
24:01
Speaker 1: as problematic. And it is. That being said, though there
24:07
Speaker 1: are plenty that are seemingly critiquing or resisting this determinism,
24:13
Speaker 1: are at the very least pointing out the dynamic between
24:17
Speaker 1: alphas and omegas is uneven. So what's so hard to
24:21
Speaker 1: talk about with this is that I think A lot
24:24
Speaker 1: of people are struggling to put into words a lot
24:28
Speaker 1: of conflicting ideas that we've all been raised with. And
24:34
Speaker 1: then desires and all of these things. And plenty of
24:40
Speaker 1: stories are touching on that. So you could argue that
24:44
Speaker 1: some are examples of usually women trying to write out
24:48
Speaker 1: desires that don't feel feminist. that they wouldn't actually want
24:55
Speaker 1: in real life, but have been socialized to desire through
24:59
Speaker 1: our media and society. But that's a little bit more
25:03
Speaker 1: leaning into what we're talking about next, which is gender.
25:06
Speaker 1: What I'd say here is that if we're looking strictly
25:10
Speaker 1: at the biology part, then this commentary, intentionally or not,
25:15
Speaker 1: on the things that we've all heard, boys will be boys,
25:20
Speaker 1: they're gonna chase, They can't help themselves because it's in
25:25
Speaker 1: their genes. It's their biologies. Omegas will submit. They actually
25:30
Speaker 1: want to submit. That is the natural order of things.
25:34
Speaker 1: If the omega produces slick, then they want the alpha.
25:39
Speaker 1: Their scent is a big indicator too. So these really physical,
25:44
Speaker 1: biological reactions that we're going to come back to in
25:50
Speaker 1: a second about how that relates to sexual assault. But
26:04
Speaker 1: this does bring us to gender, which clearly the lines
26:07
Speaker 1: are a little bit murky here in terms of ABO.
26:11
Speaker 1: But the main point I want to make clear is
26:13
Speaker 1: that it's very obvious to me that alphas are generally
26:16
Speaker 1: men or masculine. and omegas are generally women or feminine.
26:21
Speaker 1: A lot of this manifests in physicality, how people look,
26:25
Speaker 1: how tall, how broad, how pretty, in our very societal
26:29
Speaker 1: norms way. I'm also going to throw this out there,
26:33
Speaker 1: and it's largely anecdotal. Most people I know, myself included,
26:38
Speaker 1: connect with the omega in the story. And I think
26:41
Speaker 1: this is for multiple reasons. One of them is women
26:44
Speaker 1: and queer folks are largely the ones writing fanfic, And
26:48
Speaker 1: so I think they connect with omegas more for the
26:51
Speaker 1: very fact that omegas are marginalized. They do experience these
26:57
Speaker 1: power dynamics that place them on a lower rung. And
27:01
Speaker 1: that can be dangerous. So it's a way for working
27:06
Speaker 1: through those issues and thoughts and just society and what
27:12
Speaker 1: we deal with. It's interesting that that ABO first grew
27:17
Speaker 1: within the slash community, which is male slash male, men
27:21
Speaker 1: with men, because we're projecting masculine and feminine onto men.
27:28
Speaker 1: But in my experience, it is true. There is one
27:31
Speaker 1: character that is more traditionally masculine and there's one that's
27:36
Speaker 1: more traditionally feminine. This brings in a bunch of other
27:40
Speaker 1: dynamics of how men express emotions and how they are regarded.
27:45
Speaker 1: by society at large when they do. There are these
27:51
Speaker 1: clear gender dynamics, and a lot of them you could
27:54
Speaker 1: guess by demeanor and looks. Like, I feel like I
27:57
Speaker 1: could just throw out characters and you could guess which
27:59
Speaker 1: one is the alpha and which one's the omega, like,
28:02
Speaker 1: at large. Also, just how the characters fit into our
28:06
Speaker 1: traditional scripts of how a man and woman would act.
28:11
Speaker 1: Like the omega, more caring, more maternal, softer. But while
28:16
Speaker 1: prized in terms of being a, quote, good omega, aka
28:20
Speaker 1: taking care of the alpha and the pack and the babies,
28:24
Speaker 1: they are still seen as lesser. So it's still this
28:26
Speaker 1: thing of where we're not giving women's feminine work, traditionally
28:34
Speaker 1: feminine work, its value. But we're saying, like, in a
28:39
Speaker 1: lot of these, we're saying, hey, You're so valuable because
28:45
Speaker 1: you do this thing, take care of the kids. But
28:50
Speaker 1: outside of that, we're still not going to give you
28:54
Speaker 1: the money for it. So let's talk about legislation, the
28:59
Speaker 1: legislation aspect. So in most of these stories, presenting as
29:05
Speaker 1: an omega means you have less control over your body,
29:09
Speaker 1: not only because of biology, but because of the laws
29:12
Speaker 1: and societal beliefs. So in a lot of stories, omegas
29:16
Speaker 1: face challenges in getting jobs. Like there are laws about
29:20
Speaker 1: how long they can work, if they can work, in
29:22
Speaker 1: autonomy in general. And they often need an alpha to
29:27
Speaker 1: make decisions in an official setting. They get a lot
29:31
Speaker 1: of shade if they don't have an alpha, or if
29:34
Speaker 1: they continue to work after they present. This can be complicated.
29:39
Speaker 1: If you're gendered. does not match up with your secondary gender,
29:42
Speaker 1: at least as people see it. There are often laws
29:46
Speaker 1: preventing omegas from controlling their own bodies and their own lives. Money,
29:52
Speaker 1: the law starts to view them as property of alphas
29:56
Speaker 1: and baby makers who are too weak to make their
29:59
Speaker 1: own decisions. They can't receive an education in a lot
30:04
Speaker 1: of them, dependent on their alpha. So it feels like
30:09
Speaker 1: very old, like I was going to say 50s, but
30:12
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just like these old school ideas of
30:17
Speaker 1: this is where the woman belongs. And I don't know,
30:23
Speaker 1: like you can't go out and have a job. This
30:26
Speaker 1: is what you do. You stay in and you raise kids.
30:32
Speaker 1: I do understand anxieties. This is one of the things.
30:38
Speaker 1: It's like, I can see where this is coming from.
30:39
Speaker 1: I can understand the anxiety of men controlling largely women's bodies,
30:48
Speaker 1: and that is showing up in this type of fanfiction.
30:52
Speaker 1: In plenty of the stories I've read, this is something
30:55
Speaker 1: that the characters actively fight, but there are plenty of
31:00
Speaker 1: stories where the ending is incredibly depressing. Like, nothing has changed.
31:06
Speaker 1: Maybe the Alpha deceived the Omega. Maybe they both had
31:10
Speaker 1: to bend to the system to protect the Omega, and
31:13
Speaker 1: that's how it ends. Like, the system remains in place,
31:16
Speaker 1: and that's just it. One of the things I've personally
31:23
Speaker 1: struggled with in these stories, or at least gives me pause...
31:27
Speaker 1: is there seems to be a huge hang-up about abortion
31:30
Speaker 1: and childbirth. Usually, the alpha opposes abortion, and they are
31:38
Speaker 1: the ones who legally get to choose whether their partner
31:42
Speaker 1: gets it. Even if the alpha defers to the omega,
31:46
Speaker 1: the establishment and red tape in place defers to the alpha.
31:52
Speaker 1: So in cases of child care, the alpha gets precedence.
31:57
Speaker 1: It is assumed an omega with a child, or pup,
32:01
Speaker 1: as they sometimes call them, has an alpha who makes
32:06
Speaker 1: the decisions, even if that's not true, even if they're abusive,
32:09
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. But I will say that because
32:12
Speaker 1: of the biological determinism aspect, abortion is generally viewed as
32:17
Speaker 1: a slight to the alpha and against the nature of
32:23
Speaker 1: the omega. This can be intensified by the psychic bond
32:30
Speaker 1: sometimes in place, not only between the Alpha and Omega,
32:33
Speaker 1: but between Omegas and their unborn children. It's pretty common
32:38
Speaker 1: that pregnancy puts the Omega in danger, not only from
32:45
Speaker 1: giving birth, but from another competing Alpha. And that the
32:49
Speaker 1: Alpha essentially places the Omega in bubble wrap when they're pregnant.
32:56
Speaker 1: Because the whole getting pregnant thing is such a big
32:59
Speaker 1: part of the omega's identity and worth, there is the
33:03
Speaker 1: idea of the bad omega who is unable to conceive,
33:08
Speaker 1: to scent, to submit, usually because of trauma. But here,
33:12
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about what that says about miscarriages
33:16
Speaker 1: and infertility. Because it's usually painted as really tragic and
33:20
Speaker 1: sometimes something to be punished for and shunned for. a
33:25
Speaker 1: bad omega can't fulfill their purpose. Omegas are often blamed
33:33
Speaker 1: for miscarriage or inability to conceive. And sometimes, yeah, like
33:38
Speaker 1: a lot of times it's caused by trauma, as in
33:41
Speaker 1: like past trauma has built a block so they can't
33:45
Speaker 1: scent or they can't fit into their pack or they
33:48
Speaker 1: can't conceive. But I just think that That also says
33:53
Speaker 1: something about how a lot of people have internalized this idea.
33:57
Speaker 1: If I can't conceive, then something's wrong with me. I'm
34:03
Speaker 1: a bad person. A lot of stories do frame the
34:09
Speaker 1: collar as birth control. Sometimes you can get this metal
34:15
Speaker 1: patch thing. The alpha can't place the mating bite when
34:20
Speaker 1: it's on. But the caller is controlled by the alpha.
34:23
Speaker 1: So I think this is something interesting too. And we're
34:25
Speaker 1: talking about who has access to birth control and who's
34:32
Speaker 1: controlling how we have access to birth control, if we
34:37
Speaker 1: have it. So I think that's revealing of another anxiety.
34:41
Speaker 1: And going back to what I mentioned earlier with sexual assault,
34:46
Speaker 1: as we discussed in our DubCon episode, there is... an
34:51
Speaker 1: interesting read on sexual assault here too, because it's very,
34:58
Speaker 1: omegas are seducers and alphas are helpless in the face
35:03
Speaker 1: of their seduction. It's like that whole, what was she wearing? Well,
35:09
Speaker 1: we could all smell she was aroused. Was there slick?
35:14
Speaker 1: Which some have pointed out has been a way some
35:17
Speaker 1: people deal with writing this has been a way some
35:22
Speaker 1: people deal with the fact that they might have experienced
35:28
Speaker 1: such an assault, but they also had experiences or reactions
35:33
Speaker 1: of arousal, even if you didn't want that to happen.
35:38
Speaker 1: And to remind you, a lot of these stories are
35:41
Speaker 1: about young adults and teens. So it's clear people are
35:49
Speaker 1: working hard through some things, in my opinion, in these stories. So,
35:57
Speaker 1: here's my, like, the wrap-up, why I think this matters.
36:03
Speaker 1: We live in a time where the Supreme Court is
36:06
Speaker 1: stripping women and marginalized people of their rights, when women
36:10
Speaker 1: have to grapple with things like fears around pregnancy, abortion access,
36:16
Speaker 1: domestic abuse, and still feel attracted to dynamics that we've
36:22
Speaker 1: been taught to desire, but also that in a strange
36:26
Speaker 1: way address our anxieties. It's a way to question gender
36:31
Speaker 1: power dynamics or to work through them, even if you
36:36
Speaker 1: don't subscribe to them. In fact, there's a separate conversation
36:40
Speaker 1: to have about the BDSM community and how ABO Fanfic
36:44
Speaker 1: can healthily or unhealthily incorporate that concept of communication and consent.
36:52
Speaker 1: I think that this is an attempt to reconcile gendered
36:57
Speaker 1: societal structures that are so embedded that they're hard to
37:01
Speaker 1: remove on an individual level. And the fact that for
37:05
Speaker 1: a lot of people, we have been socialized to want
37:08
Speaker 1: this very same dynamic. That's what I hear from most
37:12
Speaker 1: people who read ABO, is that in real life, I
37:15
Speaker 1: would not want this. But in this safe space, I
37:20
Speaker 1: want to explore this. It's also, yeah, the internalized messaging
37:26
Speaker 1: so many of us have absorbed, men are more assertive,
37:29
Speaker 1: women are more submissive. It kind of, and going back
37:33
Speaker 1: to that like independent omega idea, that also kind of
37:38
Speaker 1: feels like the, like I'm not like other girls, I'm
37:40
Speaker 1: not like other omegas. So just wanting to have sex
37:47
Speaker 1: and it be simple, but with elements of things I
37:49
Speaker 1: know are problematic, where the roles are clear, but can
37:54
Speaker 1: be pushed. And I know some people hate it, and
37:57
Speaker 1: it certainly is often misogynistic, but I don't think it's
38:00
Speaker 1: quite so black and white. There are layers and plenty
38:05
Speaker 1: of people who read it, me included, to deal with
38:11
Speaker 1: gender and sexual dynamics. And for me, I'm kind of
38:16
Speaker 1: embarrassed to admit it, but the idea of being so
38:19
Speaker 1: desirable and worthy of protection and having someone make you
38:23
Speaker 1: feel safe is something that I'm like, this is nice.
38:28
Speaker 1: As I said, it's not necessarily the thing I seek out,
38:32
Speaker 1: but I get why people do. And for a lot
38:40
Speaker 1: of people, the smut aspect is a big draw as well.
38:43
Speaker 1: Not Not for me, but I understand it is for
38:46
Speaker 1: a lot of folks. So that's why I think it's
38:50
Speaker 1: become what it has become. And it's grown exponentially since
38:57
Speaker 1: I think we talked about it last. But there you go.
39:00
Speaker 1: That's the Omegaverse. Very brief look into it. And as
39:09
Speaker 1: I said, not a lot of people... out there writing
39:13
Speaker 1: about this. So I, if I got something wrong, please,
39:19
Speaker 1: please let me know. You can email us at hello
39:24
Speaker 1: at stuff I never told you.com. You can find us
39:26
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39:41
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