#im more interested at the person that thinks mpreg is feminism

[qqchurch]

wow, ppl weren't kidding, twitter really has something in it that just makes certain type of ppl perpetually angry

I sifted through some fandom accounts until I saw one that seemed interesting and like

dozens of dozen of tweets, everyday, nonstop, just arguing with the wildest most insane takes, even longer if the one they're quote retweeting slaps back

I don't think they have the slightest right to call others 'terminally online' with that consistency of getting into petty internet slapfights tbh

I'm a nosy bitch that loves to follow those slapfights but damn, it kinda does seem like everything there is tailor made to get you to rage at the slightest provocation

spooky, brr

[serahne]

im kind of curious on your thoughts on a/b/o... do you mind sharing?

Of course !

The a/b/o trope is pretty recent from what I can tell - I honestly can’t remember any a/b/o fanfiction prior to the ao3-aera - and has been written in many, many different ways, so I’ll start with a small definition, so we all know what we are talking about.

( Source )

The Alpha/Beta/Omega trope is a kink trope wherein some of all people have defined biological roles based on a hierarchical system, with the terms originating from animal behaviour research. There may be werewolf, knotting, or other animalistic elements involved, or the characters may be otherwise purely human.

I have very little interest ( or knowledge ) in the fury community, and any a/b/o fic I’ve read were with humans, just so you know where I stand. But I think it’s important to remember that it started as a porn. And I don’t have a lot to say about porn in general : I understand that some people have their preferences, a/b/o isn’t worse or better than another kink.

I personally think that if you read one porn fic with a/b/o elements in it… you pretty much read all of them. It’s not something I avoid at all cost, if it’s well-written I’ll read it, but the trope tends to erase the characters’ personality from canon and… I mean, I am reading fanfics to read about my favorite characters.

But enough talking about the ‘kinky’ side of the trope, and let’s talk relationship and world-building.

Alphas are generally dominant and able to impregnate Omegas. Male Alphas usually have a knot when aroused.Betas are often presented as having “normal” human anatomy with none of the special attributes of Alphas or Omegas.Omegas are generally lowest on the hierarchy (although in some fanworks Omegas are rare and prized)

A a/b/o society is a terrible society, where people are put in a hierarchical system depending on their biology. Considering the percentage of women writing fanfictions, you can understand why this trope talks to them, on a world-building level. More than just ‘alphas demand, omegas obey’, we see that a lot of masculine attribute are attributed to alphas (strenght, charisma, agressivity) and feminine attribute are attributed to omegas (beauty, grace, fragility). I’m not going to spend a lifetime on it, but omegas are the ones who are sexually assaulted in fics, omegas are the ones who receive sexist remarks, they are the ones with the passive role in a relationship.

There are a lot of people who don’t like a/b/o because it’s sexist, homophobic, but I personally disagree that a setting can convey any value. It’s the way it’s treated that matters. And, technically, the a/b/o can make for an amazing story. Two people from different social statues, who still manage to fall in love and are united to fight an unfair society… this is some cool shit, and the plot of a ton of teenagers-oriented litterature.

From what I’ve read ( and excluding the porn, because I really have nothing more to say about this, enjoy what you enjoy people ! ), there are three ways to write the a/b/o trope :

The most-common, a.k.a, the romantic comedy

The a/b/o setting is mostly there to add some spice to the relationship but really, it could just as well happen without. The subtext of sexism isn’t really adressed, and most of the time, the a/b/o trope used there is a ‘lightened’ version, where omegas aren’t subjected to any bad treatement or anything. Can also be used to justify a m/m relationship in a context where it wouldn’t be accepted, I guess. I don’t have strong opinions on these, they are problematic as much as a romantic comedy can be, you are still rooting for the characters to get their happiness because they seem to be happy together. Can be pretty short if it doesn’t have a subplot.

Favorite one : Seeking his hand, by magic__mind. It’s Victorian AU fanfiction, with L and Light from Death Note. I like slowburn, and I like pining characters sending each others letters, so that’s right up in my alley.

My favorite, a.k.a, let’s burn the society, or let’s die trying.

Okay, that might be a little misleading. But these are basically fanfictions that treat the a/b/o system as the enemy. Often starring a mighty omega who is - pardon my french - sick of this shit and absolutely decided to turn the table around. This kind of fic will include a lot of internalized se… omegaism from the character, before they realize that they aren’t the ones he should hate, he should hate the entire society instead.

If the fanfic focuses more on the relationship, then it’s about building a relationship with someone that you are not the equal of, and how frustrating and impossible it can seem. A good relationship is necessarily a balanced one, and the a/b/o trope is a big ‘nope, try again’ in this philosophy.

I personally do think that writers who takes the time to go this way tend to make an amazing job.

Favorite one(s) : Primitive Liars, by Nilahxapiel, another L/Light ( can I say that the Death Note fandom probably has the best a/b/o fics ? ) where my favorite scene has Light getting drunk, and calling L, and because L knows that Light would feel humiliated if he manhandled him or helped him, he gets drunk too, and they both jump from a bridge or something. This is beautiful.

And A Stiller Doom, which is an Ota/yuri from YOI ( even though the relationship takes the backseat ) where the a/b/o trope is arguably just an excuse to talk about discrimination, and the way society hierarchize people. It’s just the most politcal fic I could think of with this trope.

The “E.L James, is that you ?”, aka I checked the tags three times, and I wonder if the author forgot to add ‘abusive relationship’.

You know, it’s that kind of think where you wonder if you should be rooting for the omega to escape the hell out of his alpha, or something. Weirdly enough, a lot of these fics can start like the other two, with an independant-minded omega ( we can see some shade of ‘I’m not like other girls’ sometimes but… ) who wants to live their lives like they want to, and are devastated when they learnt they are omega…

… and then their arc is about accepting their place and submitting to an alpha, and it’s fine because they are in love ?

This is really the category that gives a bad name to a/b/o fics, and there are quite a lot of them out there. It’s often the fic where you get the extra-feminization of the omega, insufferable jealousy from the alpha confronted to a rival that is somehow ‘hot’, mpreg, sexual slavery, etc… In these fics, the a/b/o dynamic is treated as something positive, that brings two people together and offer them happiness, and that’s worth it because they are oh-so perfect for each others.

These fanfictions tend to have the most sex scenes, so I could link them to the ‘kinky’ side of the trope but the truth is… that the writers didn’t think one second at their context. They didn’t realize what kind of story they were writing. And honestly sometimes I’m just… what ? You can’t have character A rape characters B and then expect me to ship them, right ? RIGHT ? Obviously, the ‘consent’ question isn’t even one in these fics.

I can’t read their fics, because they create such dissonnance in my brain. I just want to reach to my favorite character and shake them until they go back to being themselves instead of being some kind of cliché omega/alpha that was forced onto them. There is nothing sadder than watching your favorite character tries to fight an unfair, disgusting system and then slowly giving up and be satisfied with their lot in life.

TL;DR

The a/b/o trope is still pretty young, and I feel like the fandom still didn’t entirely understood what a society affected by this trope would be like. Some authors do, and I honestly love their fics, but a lot of writers still take the entire world-building at face value, without seeing it as a metaphor for our own world - which it’s totally. I do have hope that in the future, the writers will be me knowledgeable on this trope, that they will read others’ take on it, and will stop ignoring the subtext.

Let’s face it, though : the porn will stay.