Daily Rant: Why I hate Omegaverse/MPREG

Meta
Title:	Daily Rant: Why I hate Omegaverse/MPREG
Creator:	sherlockholmes
Date(s):	October 31, 2012
Medium:	LiveJournal post
Fandom:	Panfandom
Topic:	Omegaverse/Mpreg, Misogyny in Fandom
External Links:	https://sherlockholmes.livejournal.com/15492.html (Wayback archive)
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Daily Rant: Why I hate Omegaverse/MPREG is a 2012 LiveJournal post by user sherlockholmes.

Excerpts

I'm not judging anyone who writes MPREG or Omegaverse, anyone who reads it or anyone who enjoys it. I'm not attacking you by thinking this fanfiction sub-genre is creepy and riddled with problems. I just think it's creepy and full of problems.

I have two main problems with Omegaverse/MPREG -- the first is that it removes the presence and need for women almost entirely (even more so than how slash fiction already does). Women are often erased from fanon representations (even in instances where they appear in canon itself in significant ways), but this trope goes a step further and erases women from the reproductive process, a site in which they are inherently, biologically necessary. Some might argue that in making women non-essential to the reproductive process, Mpreg authors are freeing those women from the sexist notions of identity that so often see women as nothing but sexual and reproductive; but in fact what seems to happen more often is that women are simply dispensed with, reinforcing the idea that women are solely sexual and reproductive and aren't worth having around otherwise. They don't need women to reproduce anymore -- so they don't have to write about women at all. And they don't. Obviously there's some overlap here with the sad lack of female characters in slash in general. But this version seems particularly insidious in another way: it grants male characters female reproductive potential while very rarely saddling them with the burdens women suffer from that potential.

The other problem is that most of the stories involve rape. Because if you're under the goddamn influence of anything -- drugs, alcohol, hormones, etc -- then you're not giving consent.... and that means it's rape.

I have no problem with fiction that deals with rape or dubious consent inherently, and I absolutely don't want to kink-shame anyone for enjoying fiction (see the disclaimer!) dealing with non- or db-con. It's not even the dub-con or non-con part that bothers me, but the overall tone of omegaverse fic, and how it dressesrape up as something it isn't that really makes me cringe. Particularly, once again, when I'm hearing people (... men) debate what "counts" as "legitimate rape". I just find it impossible to look at these stories and not think about the cultural context.

The Omegaverse glorifies and jusifies sex (and pregnancy) being forced on someone who is not in control of themselves because they were "asking for it," and ignores all the icky bits of pregnancy like lack of choice, lack of birth control, and women.

Responses

The LJ post got dozens of comments, with the post author responding in a back-and-forth conversation.

[apple_pathways]
I like the idea of MPreg: it's a nice fantasy for gay men who want to have families. Despite the reality of human relationships and they're infinite variety, reproduction is still strictly a male/female thing. A lesbian couple can come across some sperm rather cheaply, but it's not so easy for gay men who want children that are genetically related to them. (Or otherwise: I don't mean to make it seem like adoption is a picnic, either!) And I have to say: as a queer woman, the idea of having a child with a female partner, that's part me and part her, is incredibly attractive. And now I want to know why fics that involve women knocking each other up don't really exist. (I have decided to call it fem!pregnation. And I'm going to be on a crusade to make it happen now...)

Anyway, I know a lot of MPreg don't exactly shake out as a touching tribute to gay parenting, but still: the possibility exists.

As for Omegaverse, I don't really know how it works, as it doesn't really exist in het or femslash. But I have to admit: it does sound kinda hot. As a fan of sex!pollen, aliens made them do it, have sex or die, and many other ridiculous fic tropes that are basically rape-in-disguise, I've always enjoyed a degree of loss of control in my fiction. As for reality, I spent several years volunteering as a peer educator with a sexual violence activism group. I know what rape is, and I know how damaging and pervasive rape myths are. Which is why I'm always glad that discussions like this exist, that reinforce the differences between fiction and reality, and the difference between a guilty pleasure you like to read about, and how you treat actual people.

[sherlockholmes]
If I had a kid, I'd probably lose it. Biological or otherwise. I can't even keep an umbrella for more than three months.

And now I want to know why fics that involve women knocking each other up don't really exist.

I mean, the short answer is because MPREG fics aren't meant to be a commentary on what great parents two men or two women could be, but just an extension of slashfic which already marginalises women pushing a bit further to get rid of the need for them completely.

[ladyofthelog]
If you want to tell the internet that omegaverse is terrible and rapey and we should feel bad about it, I'm sure you'll find many people to agree with you. That said, some of us like omegaverse because it's creepy and full of problems. Problems are interesting.

Some of us also like to write about a_b_o_ladies.

[sherlockholmes]
It's not the same thing, though.

Additionally, the problems I'm taking about aren't actually ones that appear in the individual stories (or the drama between the characters), but the treatment of women (or non-existence and removal of them) and the dismissal and 'dressing-up' of rape in the omegaverse on a whole. This is an observation about the trope, on a whole -- and like I said. I don't mind if people like the kink at all, everyone can like whatever they want as far as I'm concerned -- but there is a lot of problematic themes within this particular genre that I feel deserve to be examined.

[ladyofthelog]
Yeah, what I'm saying is that those same problems you're attempting to call out are what makes the omegaverse interesting to write about. Rape culture in omegaverse is an upside-down, magnified mirror version of rape culture in our own world. I think there's a lot of value to omegaverse because of its flaws.

Full disclosure that I only got into omegaverse at all because of one of my friends writing about female alphas and another convincing me I should write about being ace and/or trans in the omegaverse. I'm really uncomfortable with shaming people who are interested in it as a kink even though I'm not particularly. A lot of the time I find omegaverse fics uncomfortable to read, but omegaverse exists as a commentary on our society as well as a fantasy playground. I think it's pretty not cool to cast judgment on people's motivations for reading and writing omegaverse without first asking those people what they like about it and why they're interested in it. I'm pretty sure you'll get some more nuanced responses than "because then their luv is twuest and they can have babbies!!!"

[sherlockholmes]
You're talking about something that I'm not though, because like I already said -- it's different if it's women being written about.

I'm also not asking what people like about omegaverse fiction because I don't care. As I've already said, anyone can like whatever they want to like and kink on anything they please. I don't care any more than I care about who likes what pairing. To me, that shit is personal and it should never have to be justified. I'm not shaming anyone, like I've said repeatedly in the post and in the comments. Everyone is free to like or dislike whatever they want.

At the same time, I don't think it's bad to find problems with something that you like or dislike. I have some pretty huge problems with BBC Sherlock, for example, and the treatment of women and racial minorities in the show -- but that doesn't stop me from liking it or being a part of the fandom, it's just something I'm concious of.

And honestly I don't see how it magnifies social problems or turns rape culture on it's head at all when dealing with m/m slash pairings, actually. And it's m/m pairings that I'm talking about here. Like I said to tweedisgood when she brought up the probIems of het pairings within fandom -- I'm not denying it exists but it isn't what I'm talking about.

I think omegaverse perpetuates a lot of the problems that already exist in the slash community and specifically the attitudes towards women (like the hatred of the female "het" partner, etc). I also think that a lot of omegaverse does not comment on rape culture, so much as it is a product of rape culture, specifically because so many fics (that I've come across) downplay the trauma of rape and treat hormonal-induced 'I can't help myself' sex as though it's something other than non-consensual.

[itzy strange]
I read this rant and could not agree more... so I wrote a story simply to point out exactly what makes the trope creepy and disturbing. Interestingly enough, when I posted I was certain that folks reading would flame me and freak out. Quite the opposite. People seem intrigued with a het Omegaverse that rubs their face in sexism. The story is called Born to be Bred, by Itzy Strange on fanfic net. Its becoming a monster I never intended it to be... but an odd social experiment, I guess.