Let’s preface this by acknowledging the fact that I have a serious amount of bias when writing this little article as my bread and butter on Ao3 is Omegaverse fiction. I have written 33 complete Omegaverse fics so far and two more are in the works. I have a rather large portfolio of works that I really really enjoyed making, including a decent number of MaleAlpha/MaleOmega which seems to be an area of contention when it comes to most online discourses surrounding Omegaverse as a subject.
If you’re not aware of what Omegaverse is, I will not be providing any lengthy description of it here but you’re more than welcome to visit links in order to discover your new favorite fic trope.
On June 7th, 2024, Twitter user honeycombwinter posted the tweet: “I need to ask: why are so many omegaverse fics so LOUDLY pro life? Every time there is an unwanted pregnancy some character comes in and gives the most annoying pro life guilt trip speech how do ppl srsly enjoy a/b/o fanfiction this is just misogyny with men” [sic]. Naturally this tweet was followed up with a lament that “yuri” (lesbian) Omegaverse is more sparse and honeycombwinter admitted that she simply was “just not interested in reading about men […]” Though these tweets have been ultimately taken out of context by the discourse machine and twisted around to frame women as being woman-haters for simply writing more about men than women (this is a common Omegaverse complaint with wlw OV supporters often slinging shit as if it would somehow make people like lesbians more), it’s actually just a completely tone-deaf and out-of-touch question that betrays the original poster’s ignorance toward the themes and purposes of Omegaverse fiction.
Omegaverse is, to many, like looking through a window rather than into a mirror. Women write about men having sex with each other for multitudes of reasons, some of which are actually touched upon in Lucy Neville’s monograph, Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys in which she writes, “[…] many of the women I spoke with state they enjoy m/m porn because it is marketed to a target audience they feel they have more in common with (gay men as opposed to heterosexual men), and invites them to adopt a point of view that is more in-keeping with their own sexual preferences and desires, where ‘men are the object of sexual attraction, instead of the women’.” In a long-ago post on the r/AskWomen subreddit, a male user, u/YouDumbZombie, posed the question of why women prefer gay male pornography and several women replied with similar sentiments to that which was expressed by Neville’s subjects. One user, u/Rowsdowerr stated, “In gay porn the guys are actually hot […] and the focus is on them. I also like that in gay porn the men actually make noise and usually both parties are active participants” These statements go very well with the written content of OV fanfiction or original fiction, allowing women to feel more connected to characters as none of them carry with them the real world baggage of being a woman, or they carry that baggage while being a man—something that often allows us to perform a kinky vivisection of our own traumas without having to acknowledge ourselves in a character.
Another aspect of Omegaverse slices into the heart of actual real life misogyny: being a fucking slut. Since women are often compelled by the shame of being considered a “whore” or “whorish” if they scream, cry, beg, or otherwise act wanton during sex, the concept of a “heat” and a “rut” allowing for the shedding of those cultural norms is actually a form of subversion against typical misogyny. Though there may still be prejudice within the lore of the fiction itself, the heat or rut themselves will act as a perfect instinctual release…something that can be “blamed” for the “embarrassing” actions of a lustful human being. In Omegaverse, people are allowed to want sex, to ask for sex, to have sex for sex’s own sake, and to most importantly enjoy it.
But what about the real question that honeycombwinter posed? What about the “pro life” aspect of Omegaverse? How come Omegas are always getting pregnant and having babies and there’s usually no mention of an abortion? Usually, but not always, a huge part of Omegaverse fiction is “breeding kink,” the idea of conceiving a child during sex and the symbolic “ownership” of that Omega by that Alpha cemented by that “pup.” Effectively, honeycombwinter isn’t wrong when she points out that this should seem relatively misogynistic, as it seems as though it should mirror the “ooga booga” caveman ideal of masculinity and the hapless/helpless ideal of a woman. But reality is: Mormon tradwives on TikTok are not “traditional women” and usually what’s happening in Omegaverse fictions that depict Omegas as “weak” or “damsels” is a fantasy (this is a universal fantasy shared among women/gay men/trans men/trans women/etc. etc. etc. who are attracted to masc men) of competency and commitment. They’re not “pro life” they’re a window into what people who find men attractive would find most attractive in men. Competency kink is huge and can often catch a person completely off guard. When we all look back on ye olde romance novels we cut our teeth on…weren’t all those dashing rakes just terribly competent? That’s the draw of the Alpha/Omega dynamic…that a man will not just be commanding, masculine, and handsome: he’ll know how get shit done. Not only that, he’ll be utterly devoted, even to the point of life-altering events such as having children and raising those children as a present and constant father figure who can then impart on those children competency and intelligence. (Note that I’ve never said a word here about “kindness” as villains are often some of the most competent damn characters there are and boy howdy do we love a competent villain. See: All the Hannibal fanfic out there.)
Unfortunately, as with most fictions, each Omegaverse fic would have to speak for itself. There’s no amount of generalization that could even begin to explain the intentions or deeper psychology behind every OV fiction story as every one of them is as individual as their authors. Each story is informed by the experiences of the person who wrote it, reflecting their personal traumas, their generational quandaries, and even sometimes aspects of their subconscious psychological desires. Writing is about the exploration of not just the world but our selves. Every author is digging into their own mind and heart and soul, mucking around with things that are as unserious as they are serious. Is Omegaverse misogynistic? To some people, it might just seem that way depending on their own individual interpretations of not just misogyny but the trope and the experiences with the trope that they have had in the past. Knowing that honeycombwinter is completely fine with “pro life” when it’s written about women is something that might require its own vivisection…but that’s honestly her own business and it doesn’t seem as though she’s all that interested in examining it right now.
Personally, I like mucking through the world and the Self with Omegaverse. I like using it as a tool just as I would use any other tool. I like writing all kinds of pairing from MaleBeta/FemOmega, to FemAlpha/FemOmega, to MaleAlpha/FemOmega, etc. and on and on and on! In fact, I hope that one day I will have covered every single pairing type that’s possible in the Omegaverse, exploring every single crevice of this lovable trope that can help so many people look through windows rather than into mirrors. Controversy? No stranger to that. Here’s to much more of it and here’s to not giving a shit.