Omega males, women, and narrative dread

[resonant]

I was thinking about the omega male thing in slash stories -- have you seen this? Where a male character will be written as having an estrus cycle, having a self-lubricating orifice, and being able to get pregnant? I've never seen it anywhere but Inception fandom, but for all I know, it's all over the place.

And the first time I saw it, I thought, "Hey, why not just make Arthur a woman? Or write a story about Ariadne?"

And then I thought, "There are stories about always-female Arthur, and stories about Ariadne. I don't read either of them. On the other hand, I'm not completely nuts about the omega-male thing, but I am reading this."

So there's something in particular about writing a story that is basically about the female sexual response, but writing it using the body of a male character. And I have a theory.

See, bonding with female characters is hard.

Seriously, when I watch something with a woman in it, I watch it with a bit of dread. (Even a movie, where there isn't a lot of time for dread.) I still spend the whole time with an underlying dread about what's going to be done to the woman. Not what the other characters are going to do to her -- what the creators are going to do to her.

Maybe they'll fridge her. Or someone will rape her. Or maybe it will be less violent -- they'll give her a new boyfriend or a new baby and she'll completely lose her agency, if not her entire sense of self. Or they'll decide she needs to be absorbed in her looks to the exclusion of everything else (this is often done via a makeover scene).

If she's not a major enough character to merit this sort of reduction -- if she's mostly in the background -- then maybe all that will happen is that the show will cruelly mock her for being attractive, or for being unattractive, or for having sex, or for not having sex.

Now, I like women. And I find them sexy. And so you'd think I could overcome all this to enjoy reading stories about women having sex, right? At least if they're written in fandom, where I can trust the writers?

But you know that thing where women do worse on standardized tests when they're reminded that they're women? To be honest, after all these years of consuming mass-produced entertainment, I feel this sense of narrative dread even when I'm reading original characters written by writers I trust. It's Pavlovian. I feel fear for her as soon as I'm reminded that she's a woman.

So if I have the vague erotic desire to read about the female sexual response, but I don't want it contaminated by that dread? Maybe it's not surprising to find myself reading about men who have sex like women.






[edited to add: maybe I ought to tell y'all what I was reading that got me thinking about this? It was this not-very-dom-subby Inception story by Recrudescence, and it's not my kink but I enjoyed it just the same.]

Comments

[nestra]

I was thinking about the omega male thing in slash stories -- have you seen this? Where a male character will be written as having an estrus cycle, having a self-lubricating orifice, and being able to get pregnant?

Smallville fandom used to do this to both Clark and Lex (not in the same story). And then they'd get married.

I have not seen it in Inception, so huh.

[laurajv]

I've also seen it in Harry Potter. (And I *think* there were a couple of Sentinel stories, back in the day, and some X-Files.)

[resonant]

Wow. I'm not widely read in Smallville, but I would have thought I'd have run into that.

> And then they'd get married.

In Inception it seems to go along with a pheremone-based pair-bonding type thing, often with knotting.

(Initially I typed 'pain-bonding,' which is reasonably accurate as well.)

I love fandom.

[out_there]

But you know that thing where women do worse on standardized tests when they're reminded that they're women?

I did not know that thing (but it was very interesting, thanks for the link) but I share your concerns about stories about female characters. I very, very rarely read het or cis-gender-switch stories, and yet gender-switched slash pairings I will read and enjoy (apparently, I trust girl/girl but girl/guy fannish stories make me wary).

I'm thinking about it now because it's not that I avoid reading/watching stories with female characters in media -- but... yes. There's always that part of me ready to forgive/rationalise/defend a female character because I like her despite how terribly the creators have decided to treat her now.

[resonant]

There are people who can pick up a female character from regular sources and run with her -- give Hermione Granger a rich inner life and an active post-school career that doesn't involve popping out babies at nineteen -- and more power to them, but I just feel safer with the men.

[wintercreek]

It's HUGE in Glee fandom, at least on the kink memes, as "boy pussy." Some of the male characters written this way can not only get pregnant but also develop breasts that can lactate.

Also huge is "girl peen," about otherwise anatomically female characters who have a penis in place of a clitoris (or a were penis, which only comes out under certain circumstances) and can sometimes impregnate other female characters.

[resonant]

Yeah, I've seen lactation in Inception, too.

> were penis

This is hilarious.

Is it freaky that it's also kind of hot?

[sara]

...I now want a story where the characters genderswap when the moon's full.

Because c'mon, that would be awesome.

[merrily]

Ooo, interesting. I'm glad you wrote this post! And certainly I agree: watching canon texts, particularly popular canon texts, is nearly always an exercise, for me, in trying to turn off the part of my brain that's wondering if the thing I'm consuming is going to result in me feeling wounded on behalf of the female characters, or if the thing I'm watching/reading is going to get anywhere close to meeting the Bechdel test. I nearly never get so far as to worry if it's going to offer a satisfying female character story arc.

However, I am not really worried about fanartists doing the same thing. I mean, working with what we work with means that we might be reflecting the male primacy of the source, but generally I feel like the people making fanwork, if they're featuring women prominently, aren't going to do anything bad to them.

I just want more. More Molly/Sherlock, more Sherlock/John/Mary, more Hermione/Remus, more Hermione/Luna, more Astrid/Olivia.

I'm okay with (and read a lot of) the knotting thing, but it makes me sad that there's no such collection of het or femslash impregnation fic to match it. They're shades of the same kink, and I would read all three flavours.

[resonant]

trying to turn off the part of my brain that's wondering if the thing I'm consuming is going to result in me feeling wounded on behalf of the female characters

Yes, that's exactly it!

The knotting thing is kind of a headscratcher for me -- I mean, I can think of things someone could do with it that would be sexy to me, but I don't see anyone doing them. Mostly writers seem to focus either on the combination of pleasure and pain (not my kink) or on the pair-bonding aspect (not particularly my kink).

I could really enjoy a story that got deeply into "OK, we're physically locked together in the most intimate way imaginable for the next 45 minutes to an hour -- can you reach the remote, or are we going to have to talk?" Especially if the writer could get the characters to that point while still having their relationship very much unsettled and full of tension.

[niqaeli]

I am given to understand that the omega trope is huge on the Sherlock kinkmeme.

This is an interesting analysis of its potential appeal. I had so far been fairly baffled as to what made it so popular but, huh.

[mad_maudlin]

It surely is--one poor pathetic anon prompted it over and over on the kink meme, and when it finally got a fill the meme just exploded. It's even developed sub-memes, like Destined!Alpha/Omega pairings, Family!Alphas and Omegaverse/D/s-AU fusions.

[resonant]

Wow. I go through phases of reading a lot of Sherlock, but somehow I've missed this. What I get for tending to read based on author rather than description, I guess.

[muccamukk]

I remember that one from The Sentinel fandom in the '90s. Also the characters turned into giant cats. It was an odd fandom. It's huge in SPN RPF right now, or so I gather.

I get what you're saying about it being more personal. I was talking to someone about a recent run on Heroes for Hire, where the lead character, a black woman, was captured, brainwashed and experimented on. I was like, hey, it's comics: everybody gets captured, brainwashed and experimented on, and it was set up for her kicking everyone's ass while tide to an IV drip, so I was down with it.

But the woman I was talking to felt really bothered by the sexual overtones of that sequence, like there was this whole history of that being done to women, both in fiction and RL that she couldn't de-contextualise from the story. For her, it was a different story because it was happening to a black woman.

I get that too sometimes, I'm mostly a h/c and adventure writer, and I have trouble absolutely nailing a woman character (especially a queer one) with that level of angst it feels too much like I'm doing it to me.

I'm trying to get over this, because I feel like there really ought to be more h/c femslash.

[sinensis]

May I pick your brain for a moment and ask if you remember specific Sentinel stories or authors that used the trope? Did they use the "alpha/omega" terminology?

The reason I'm asking is that I'd like to add some more historical context to the Fanlore page on this, and my own memory of the fanfic of yore is misty.

[resonant]

like there was this whole history of that being done to women, both in fiction and RL that she couldn't de-contextualise from the story.

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it -- you can have the exact same thing happen to two characters and yet it's not the same thing because of the context of all the other things you've seen/read/experienced personally.

I kind of enjoy stories where male law-enforcement-type characters have to pose as prostitutes, for instance, whereas trying to read a story where that happened to a female cop would cause me a lot of anxiety.

[jamjar]

I think some of the omega type fic is because if you wrote it as a woman, it would be amazingly offensive.

She goes into heat and has to get pregnant by an alpha male and her hormones, the fact that she can get pregnant, means she's going to be submissive, even when she doesn't want to be, to an alpha male.

And YMMV - I read a Supernatural RPS take on this where it basically said that Alphas were the discriminated class because a lot of the things that made them Alphas (protective instincts, competitive, recognising and being massive attracted to a omega by scent alone, etc.) were dangerous or potentially damaging in modern society. I've read some decent takes on it, but a lot of it does conflate ability-to-gestate with a whole bunch of things that would squick you the fuck out if they were written in a woman.

[torch]

Bingo. At least, this is my theory also -- that this doesn't get written about women because it's not really about the way women's sexuality works, and if you wrote it about women, people would have fits. I've seen quite a bit of it in both SPN and SPN RPS and it seems to be spreading in a kink wave across several contemporary fandoms, and the emphasis appears to be on Mating and being In Heat (or rather, being in heat and then mating because of that *g*).

[jcalanthe]

This is the most interesting explanation I've seen thusfar. I'm sure this informs my reading/watching habits as well. I know there are some shows I wish would just not bother trying to have female characters/characters of color because ZOMG it is painful to watch the attempts (and sometimes it's easier to watch an all-white-male show because I know going in that it's offensive for being that, and I don't have to brace myself for what you describe like I do in more diverse shows).

Which makes me kind of despair of things changing, you know? I mean of course, fandom is supposed to be enjoyable! But I'm also someone who wants women & people of color in my TV & other media, and the only way that happens if if we watch it & engage with it. Which I do, and I know you do, I just wish it didn't feel like we have to pay a unexpectedly variable penalty to do so.

[resonant]

Good points all.

I also feel bad that my slash-fannishness has led to me supporting a fair number of male-dominated shows/movies of dubious quality, while ignoring a number of more female-centered shows/movies that were much better. The things that make me enjoy something as itself are not the same as the things that make me really plug into it fannishly.

[anatsuno]

I can relate to this, yes. I mostly read women written by writers I particularly trust either to treat them well or, precisely, to treat them badly - ie give me the porn and satisfaction I'm looking for. (which might involve stuff that omg could be incredibly offensive to others. so.) :)

[resonant]

Among pro writers, I always used to enjoy the way Jennifer Crusie wrote women (I haven't cared for her collabs with Bob Mayer, though) -- but her stories were never especially sexy to me; I've learned to come to fandom for my porn needs and not try to get them met in the world at large.

[kass]

I haven't encountered the Omega male idea, but reading this post, I find myself thinking that on some level it applies to slash fandom writ large.

I have the vague erotic desire to read about the female sexual response, but I don't want it contaminated by that dread? Maybe it's not surprising to find myself reading about men who have sex like women.

I mean -- this makes me think of cesperanza's old slogan "like men, only better," you know?

[resonant]

Hee, yes! So the things we've determined would improve men are, like:

1. Feeeeeeelings.
2. Communication skills.
3. Multiple orgasms.

[giglet]

I hadn't run into the omega male thing. I also identify with the women and have come to expect that they will be treated badly by canon creators.

So if I have the vague erotic desire to read about the female sexual response, but I don't want it contaminated by that dread?

When I'm in that position, I read canons that only have a few men in them, where the women (and interactions between women) are the point of the story. The example at the top of my mind right now is St. Trinian's. Sure, Colin Firth and Rupert Everett and Russell Brand play male characters (not to mention RE's female character), but the fandom is pretty much about the young women and girls dealing with each other.

[resonant]

It's a good idea. And I suppose that if I say, "But there really aren't very many canons like that," a person would have to say, "Well, but fans like you are part of the problem!"

[sqbr]

Hi, I came across this via my network, and it's interesting because I have had almost the exact opposite experience. I bond with female character by default (which does cause me some angst, but it's not a matter of choice, that's just how my brain works), and find it very difficult to engage with texts that only have male characters. I'm not a huge fan of stories that turn a subset of men into pseudo-women in general, but the ones that say that these "women" like being subjugated, or that their subjugation is an inevitable part of their nature are incredibly upsetting, even triggering. The only omega verse stories I've enjoyed were about female alphas, and thus drew a clear distinction between sexism and the biological drive of being an alpha/beta etc.

Gender for me has little to do with biology. I like stories where whatever society says, the narrative supports the idea that men, women and people of other genders are all basically the same underneath.

I get the feeling my id is at right angles to many other women's ids...

[resonant]

Well, the thing I particularly like in slash fandom is a very specific narrative that you might describe as "masculinity being dissolved into tenderness," so obviously I'm kinked for male characters to begin with.

It's been surprising me in this discussion to learn that power differentials are apparently an intrinsic part of this trope most of the time, because I'd say most of what I've read has skirted that. I must just have gotten lucky.

[krait]

Everyone here is so awesome. :D

I've stumbled across a few alpha-omega fics when searching for other things, mostly in fandoms I don't know very well, and. Uh. I think you can sum up my reaction with my immediate reaction to the mention of Sherlock: "Thank goodness I got out of the Sherlock kinkmemes before that took over."

Deeply personal reactions/narrative bonds are deeply personal! I speak only for myself, etc. That said...

I never felt that the 'omega males' read in a female way to me; and since pregancy falls into "body horror" rather than "identification" or "femininity" in my brain, well. Yeah. Omega males and the way they act, react, and experience their biology doesn't make me think "female sexual response" at all, just "dystopia"/"screwed over by worldbuilding".

If I want 'safe' sources for "gimme female sexual response", I go read MMF threesome fic. :D (MMF is my safe happy place in fandom -- I find that those who write women badly are more inclined to write MFF or just het. MMF is more like slash, I guess; enough slashfen write it that I feel able to trust them with the female characters, too.)

The whole "I dread getting attached to female characters too quickly" thing is spot-on for me, alas. Less so with female authors (couldn't really say re: scriptwriters; most of my fandoms are book-based), who get a bit more trust on the basis of their gender if I know it, but I'm still wary.

I've given up completely on female-lead military sci-fi by male authors, because it's backfired on me so many times. Getting attached to an awesome female lead and then watching it fall apart hurts more viscerally than getting attached to a male lead and watching his author wreck him.

[resonant]

I hate it when female characters are victimized for their sex (or by means of their sex), but I hate it even worse when they're just hollowed out from the inside. A sort of silly example is the gothy girl in "The Breakfast Club," who's this magnificently malevolent sprite with no regard for anyone including herself, but ends the movie by getting a makeover and becoming an object of male protectiveness.

If I want 'safe' sources for "gimme female sexual response", I go read MMF threesome fic.

Ooh, yes yes yes! You're exactly right!

[reddwarfer]

I found myself nodding a lot, particularly in regards to connecting with women in media. I'm always dreading that inevitable episode where there's going to be sexual violence against her.

[resonant]

[nods] It's to the point where I'm surprised to read any story (even a young adult or kids' story) where a female character is not threatened with rape. It struck me about Nnedi Okorafor's "Akata Witch" -- the threats that are made against Sunny are exactly the same threats that would be made against a boy in her position, and I spent the whole book braced for that to change.

[ealgylden]

(here from somewhere, I couldn't tell you, honestly *g*)

There were a mountains of prompts along these lines in the various X-Men: First Class memes, many of which inspired long, complicated universes with laws and social codes and what-all, and I'm not sure I ever saw one actually get finished. I mean, kink memes have a high percentage of story-bits that just die out, of course, but this particular theme seemed especially prone to it, at least in that fandom. It's like people could stretch it thus far and no farther, never quite to a happy ending (or not) in a "real" world, whatever world that was. Now, I'm sure there are finished XMFC alpha/omega stories on AO3 or somewhere (not my kink so I haven't looked), but all those abandoned pieces on the kinkmemes caught my eye. Very strange.

[indywind]

I noticed several "omegaverse" XMen First Class stories in AO3 -- I read a couple to find out what the idea behind this apparently popular AU 'verse was. A thoughtful take -- one of the tags is "social justice porn" is The Omegaist Mystique, for those who may enjoy it.