Omegaverse and Gender Politics

Video Essay
Title:	Omegaverse and Gender Politics
Creator:	Jonah Bear (withswords)
Date(s):	December 11, 2020
Medium:	Posted to YouTube
Length:	42:23
Footage:
Fandom:	Panfandom
Topic:	Omegaverse
External Links:	Omegaverse and Gender Politics on YouTube
Instead of a title card, the video opens with a line art drawing and a voice over where the narrator discusses their history in fandom.
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Omegaverse and Gender Politics is a 2020 video essay by Jonah Bear. The video is divided into six main segments: "Omegaverse History Lesson," "The part where I have to talk about yaoi," "Gender Fetish," "The God Damn Straight People," "Transformative Fiction," and "Conclusion."

The video essay quotes significantly from Hard-Core Romance: "Fifty Shades of Grey," Best-Sellers, and Society by Eva Illouz.

Summary

"Did you like Lindsay Ellis's smash hit 'Into the Omegaverse?' This video is nothing like that one, but it IS about problematizing werewolf porn. A moderately deep dive to unpack the history of omegaverse and its implications for gender and sexuality in fandom. Also I say a lot of naughty words."

Excerpts

Gender Fetish

"Something I don't think is discussed enough outside of hard scholarship is the level of imposed heteronormativity from fans onto queer fantasies. [...] I've taken to calling [this] the gender fetish. The constant need to reify, if not the literal representation of normative gender and sexuality, then the simulation of them. Gender fetish, as I use the term, is generally speaking not an exploration of these ideas and their complexity."

"so why do so many women gravitate towards this dynamic [strict gender roles] in yaoi and straight erotica?

Transformative Fiction

The title card for this section of the video. The other title cards used the same style of writing and color scheme.

"As harsh as I've been throughout this video, it would do my fellow creators a disservice if I didn't at least talk about the most challenging part of omegaverse. That being the stories that are actually... good. [...] Subverted omegaverse are gaining popularity. Initially stories were flush with non-con and public claiming, but much of that has given way to modern omegaverse, featuring fights for sexual equality, hormone suppression, and non-traditional couplings."

"One example that I always think about even though it's not the most progressive was actually from a doujin that involved an alpha/beta couple struggling against social pressure and jealousy in a way that felt like a very honest queer experience translated through a fantasy setting."

"a serious omegaverse has genuinely thoughtful worldbuilding as the story becomes about wrestling with its own setting. [...] those people have chosen to interpret omegaverse as a method of interrogating our own world, the way we deal with sex and gender. What could society be like if sexual norms and gender roles were as enshrined as conservative propoganda would like us to believe. [...] And on a meta level, how do we as queer readers interact with erotica. Where is the line between celebrating and fetishizing when you are interacting with a fantasy of yourself."

Conclusion

"The fantasy of extreme submission, extreme desirability can be just as potent for trans writers and audiences to indulge in, but I also believe that thoughtless sex positivity is just as harmful as sex negativity. Either perspective invests an incredible amount of power into sex while preventing us from actually having a productive conversation about it."

"I want to create an environment with shades of grey for once. If we can't be reflective and critical about something as silly as omegaverse, if we can't engage with someone pointing out its problems, without becoming defensive, how can we expect to be level-headed and critical about serious issues, like racism or underage content in our spaces or predators. I know that fandom is the place that we escape [...] but what does it mean for us if we are willing to let our escapism come at the expense of others around us?"

Reception

As of January 1, 2021 (roughly two weeks after the video was posted), it has 387 views on YouTube. A tumblr link on the creator's blog has over 400 notes, perhaps largely due to criticism from olderthannetfic and the resulting discussion. An excerpt of olderthannetfic's critique is included below:

"Interesting stuff, but as with most conversations about a/b/o, it fails on the most basic fundamentals:

• Rape fantasies are normal and common to all types of human. (Mentioned here but very much glossed over, particularly the fact that they’re normal and not at all unhealthy.)
• Art that exists purely to get someone off is valid. It’s not beyond criticism, but this video betrays a certain discomfort with orgasms as the ultimate goal of art. Any art. Ever. Unlearn your radfem poisoning, dude, seriously.
• Gay men’s erotica is as fixated on penetration being the only real sex as the hetero stuff is. Blaming this on women is due to misogyny, nothing more.
• Role-based kink is pretty common all over the place, and role-stratified same-sex relationships have been the norm throughout a lot of history and cultures. The mere existence of roles doesn’t tell you much about whether something is likely to be written by straight people or whether it’s progressive or regressive.
• “Yaoi” is used by English speakers in an inaccurate and culturally imperialist way, and for a video like this, the vidmaker should either grapple with that fact or stick to “BL”
• “Bara” is equivalent to “pansy” (though it literally means “rose”) and English speakers have been asked to stop calling gei komi this
  

Bara’s not like the slur to end all slurs or anything, but lack of clue about this basic fact is in line with the lack of clue all over this analysis. Yeah, it sounds good on first blush to a bunch of tumblrites who want a license to judge other people’s fantasy lives, but it’s a regurgitation of the radfem anti-porn crusade that adds little real insight."