Archive of Our Own

Glossary

This work will use the following terminology:

Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics, also known as Omegaverse: an alternate universe setting where the human male-female bimodal distribution is combined with or replaced by a ”dynamic” system of alphas, omegas, and betas. Typically omegas are fertile and may be able to become pregnant regardless of sex. Alphas may be able to impregnate regardless of sex, and may feature non-human genitalia such as knotted penises. Stories may also feature heats, ruts, or other varieties of non-human mating behaviors.

Dynamic – the category of alpha, beta, or omega. Comparable to gender and often combined with it, e.g. male omega, female alpha.

Mpreg – male pregnancy. A story that features a male character being pregnant. This may occur through a variety of means.

Introduction

In recent fandom discourse there seems to be a trend of declaring all works using Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics or Omegaverse to be transphobic. While the exact reasoning behind this claim seems to vary, there are some general trends that pop up repeatedly. This work aims to address two of these:

1. Omegaverse is gender essentialist or reinforces gendered stereotypes and is therefore transphobic.
2. Omegaverse is trans erasure.

We will address these two points one at a time.

1. Omegaverse reinforces gender stereotypes

The logic behind this claim is usually some variation of the following:

   Omegaverse features strongly enforced social roles based on the person’s sex and/or dynamic. This equates biology with social role and therefore harms trans people.

This argument falls apart at several points.

First, while many descriptions of Omegaverse fiction seem to focus on a particular trend of aggressive, socially dominant alphas and submissive, oppressed omegas, this is by no means a universal trend. Omegaverse stories cover a broad range of sex and gender expressions as well as social hierarchies. There are stories where it is impossible to tell omegas and alphas apart at a glance, and others where these dynamics are not only obvious but linked to strictly enforced social roles. There is also variation in the way the male-female division is handled, especially in its intersection with the dynamic system.

This variation as well as the strong extremes may be linked to the nature of Omegaverse stories. Authors will often use this non-realistic setting to play with expected roles or to distance themselves from them. Mirroring and exaggerating hierarchies that are present in real life through fiction is a well-established way of analyzing and criticizing said hierarchies. These depictions may also be cathartic, particularly for people who feel excessively burdened by similar expectations and hierarchies in real life.

On the less severe end of the spectrum, Omegaverse can be seen as the exact opposite of what this claim suggests. In stories where social roles are largely the same as in the real world with the added layer of dynamics, rules and expectations that are perceived as standard in real life can be broken. Furthermore, the separation of gender and dynamic allows for social variation that is impossible in real life as many of the basic biological differences between sexes are shifted onto the dynamics side. In an Omegaverse story, a man may get pregnant and nurse his child without the perception of his masculinity being affected, as these biological functions are linked to being an omega. Likewise, a woman in such a story may sire children and have a penis and still be universally accepted as female, as these apparently incongruous elements are linked to being an alpha. For trans people, who may often find their identity challenged and even denied based on their reproductive organs, this can be very freeing and validating.

In short, claiming that all Omegaverse stories follow strict gender and/or dynamic roles is disingenuous at best. It also dismisses both the usage of fictional hierarchies to study real ones and the way Omegaverse can in fact counteract stereotypical gender roles by separating certain gendered aspects into a different category.

This claim also ignores the way gender stereotypes and accusations of following them have been used, and still often are used, as weapons against trans people in real life. Trans people will often have their identity questioned and invalidated because they are not ”passing”. They may be accused of faking being trans and even denied resources necessary to transition if they are perceived as ”not trying hard enough”. The caricature of trans women as bearded men in dresses is used to justify harassment, assault, and anti-trans legislative efforts. However, if trans people do cross the threshold of performing their gender to others’ satisfaction, they will often be criticized for reinforcing stereotypes or playing dress-up. This game of damned if you do, damned if you don’t is continuously used to justify discrimination and violence against trans people, and claiming that fictional hierarchies in fictional universes are what’s really causing harm to trans people only serves to dismiss and obscure the very real ways gendered stereotypes are used to cause harm in the real world.

In conclusion, the argument that Omegaverse reinforces harmful stereotypes is flawed in many ways. There is great variety in the type of societal hierarchies depicted in Omegaverse works, and these different depictions are often used to comment on and examine existing hierarchies. The claim ignores the many ways Omegaverse can be used against harmful real-life ideas, and is particularly insensitive in light of the way trans people in real life are often accused of reinforcing gender stereotypes while simultaneously facing social punishment for not conforming to them.

2. Omegaverse is trans erasure

This claim is both more vague and more specific than the first one. In general, it is focused on trans men, and tends to be some variation of the following:

   Authors are writing Omegaverse instead of writing trans characters. In particular this takes the form of authors writing pregnant male omegas instead of pregnant trans men. This erases trans people.

This claim is built upon certain other assumptions. These can be categorized as such:

    1. If authors weren’t writing Omegaverse stories, they would write stories with trans characters instead.

       1.1. Omegaverse stories and stories with trans characters fill the same needs and desires for the author and/or readers.

       1.2. Omegaverse and stories featuring trans characters are mutually exclusive, because they are different ways of accomplishing the same goal.

2.1. Data

To begin tackling the first statement, we will look at some actual data. Because this claim tends to focus on pregnant men in stories, we will also include stories featuring mpreg in our data set.

For the sake of comparison, data was collected on the number of works containing each trope on Archive of Our Own. The tags used for gathering the data were ”Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics”, ”Trans Character”, and ”Mpreg”. These are all canonical tags on the Archive, and therefore will cover any relevant subtags. Any errors due to lack of tagging are assumed to be minimal and outside the scope of this work.

Total number of works was recorded for each tag up until the end of 2010 as well as for each year since then up to the current date. All data was gathered on 4th of September, 2020. Due to the nature of backdating and updates on the Archive, the numbers may have changed somewhat since then; however, such changes should be minimal outside the current year.

Furthermore, overlapping sets for each combination of two tags were recorded.

Table 1. Yearly and accumulative number of works by year

Fig.1: Number of new works in each tag per year

Fig. 2: Total number of works in each tag by year

From these initial numbers, it would be easy to conclude that A/B/O is indeed drowning out the other two tags. However, there are other factors to consider besides absolute numbers.

First is the matter of relative growth. It is expected that each tag will see more new works year over year as the Archive continues to grow. However, the rate at which this growth happens is also significant. If Omegaverse is indeed taking space from stories about trans characters, faster growth in the former should lead to slower growth in the latter.

Table 2. Percentage growth by year

* Due to the nature of the data set collected, numbers from 2011 were compared to everything prior to 2011.

Fig. 3: Yearly growth as percentage

Here we see a significant spike in Omegaverse works between 2011 and 2013. After this, however, Omegaverse and stories with trans characters have seen very similar growth. Between 2015 and 2017 the Trans Character tag actually saw faster growth than the Omegaverse tag. Meanwhile the Mpreg tag is consistently the slowest growing tag of the three.

Perhaps Omegaverse is not replacing as much as absorbing, then. To analyse this interpretation, we will have to look at tag combinations, that is, the number of works tagged with two of the relevant tags. Of the three possible two-tag combinations, two (Trans Character and Mpreg, and Trans Character and Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics) were statistically insignificant, but are included here for the sake of thoroughness. The third combination, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics and Mpreg, is presented both as total numbers and as percentage of each tag on its own. 

Table 3. Tag combinations by year

Fig. 4: Tag overlap as percentage of parent tags

Here we see a clear trend emerging. Only a fraction of works tagged with Trans Character are also tagged with either Omegaverse or Mpreg (1,4% of total each). However, there is significant overlap between the remaining two tags. Up to 30% of all Omegaverse works in each year were also tagged with Mpreg, with the rates in recent years being somewhat steady at just short of 20%. On the other hand, the percentage of Mpreg works that are also tagged with Omegaverse is constantly rising, from just 2% in 2011 to over 40% in 2020.

The conclusion is clear: The popularity of Omegaverse does not seem to have had a significant impact on the number of works featuring trans characters on the Archive. However, Omegaverse is taking over more of the Mpreg tag each year, and if the rates continue climbing, Omegaverse will account for the majority of all Mpreg stories in just a couple of years.

This would seem to track with the original claim. Authors want to write stories with male pregnancy, and rather than featuring trans men they instead write Omegaverse stories. However, this ignores the other assumptions required for the claim to be true.

2.2. Filling a niche

The numbers only show that Omegaverse is taking over the Mpreg part of fandom. This does not automatically equate to replacing stories with trans characters. For that to be true, we would have to assume that Omegaverse and stories with trans characters fill the same literary niche, as writing one can perfectly replace writing the other. I argue that the comparison fails for a few different reasons. This section will look deeper into these reasons.

2.2.1 Reality bites

While male pregnancy is a very notable feature of Omegaverse, it is not the only element setting Omegaverse stories apart from the real world. While the exact details vary from author to author and even between different stories by the same author, most Omegaverse stories will feature some combination of non-human instincts, physical features, and social conventions and structures. The fact that these foreign and often animalistic features have persisted over the years and evolved further shows that they are an integral part of the draw of the genre.

Trans people, on the other hand, are simply people. Trans people do not have heat cycles, mating bites, or knotted penises. Trans people do not nest or issue dominance challenges or fall victim to pheromones.

It is certainly possible to write Omegaverse with little to no animalistic features. However, such works are in the minority, and are outright ignored whenever Omegaverse is described to or by outsiders.

Claiming that writing Omegaverse is the same thing as writing trans characters is othering and dehumanizing towards trans people, equating them with something that is not possible in the real world, something that is not human.

Omegaverse is fantasy, something that could never actually be real. Trans people exist, live real lives, and face real harm.

2.2.2. Real people represent

Following from the previous point, a brief note: with the endless variety within the genre, it is basically not possible to write Omegaverse wrong. It is, however, very possible to write trans characters in a way that is offensive, harmful, or simply factually wrong. An author may simply want to avoid even the possibility of hurting real people through inadequate representation. Whether this is a desirable outcome may be a matter for debate, but it is a very clear reason why Omegaverse may be preferable from the author's standpoint.

2.2.3. Pregnancy blues

In these discussions, trans men are often presented as a "realistic way to do mpreg". After all, they are men who can, under certain circumstances, get pregnant. There are numerous real life cases of this happening. Why, then, would writers planning an mpreg story take the double win of realism and representation by using a trans character?

Setting aside the fact that not everyone sees realism as the ultimate goal or even desirable, there is another, more immediate reason: being a pregnant trans man is not actually that simple.

In Omegaverse, pregnancy and conception are generally in a similar role as in real life. While heat cycles and knotting are not exactly ordinary, some things are still the same in most cases. Aside from some rare exceptions, in Omegaverse it is possible, accepted, and sometimes even expected that anyone capable of getting pregnant will do so at some point. Accidental pregnancies are possible. Stores carry masculine pregnancy clothes. Nobody will think twice about a clearly masculine person with a baby belly, and the usual reaction is congratulations.

In real life, things are much more complicated. From a biological standpoint, while it is possible for a trans man to get pregnant by accident, this is only possible until a certain point in their transition. Aside from surgeries, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can make conception impossible. Even attempting pregnancy will generally require stopping HRT for some time, which has its own downsides. For many trans men, the dysphoria involved in conception, pregnancy, and the surrounding social structures is impossible to overcome even if they wanted to try to get pregnant.

In real life, a pregnant trans man will often face harassment and abuse. His identity may be questioned directly or indirectly. Most pregnancy resources are focused on women, and a trans man may find himself uncomfortable or even be denied access.

The legal side of things is rarely painless, either. Our established systems don't deal well with deviations from the norm, and change is slow. In many countries it is still impossible for trans people to get legal recognition unless they have undergone surgery or been otherwise sterilized, forcing them to choose between identity and the possibility of children. Even after the children have been born they can be an obstacle for legal recognition or social acceptance. 

The suggestion that Omegaverse and trans characters are interchangeable ignores all these ways in which real life does not match the fantasy. Furthermore, the very idea reduces trans men to their reproductive system. In Omegaverse, omegas are usually characterized by their fertility and ability to bear children, while for many trans men, being defined by their reproductive organs is the last thing they want. While some trans men may be happy to bear children, or might decide that the pros outweigh the cons, this is by no means a universal experience. In most cases it is not even possible for a variety of reasons, and looking at a male omega in a story and making the leap of "omega = man with uterus = trans man" is flippant and downright offensive.

(No, this does not contradict the idea that a trans man might feel validated by the idea of a male omega's masculinity being independent of his reproductive ability. Trans people are not a monolith, and even the same person may seek different things from fiction at different times.)

Omegaverse and stories featuring mpreg in general run from realistic all the way to whimsical fantasy, and these stories are written to meet a variety of needs and desires. Characterizing pregnant trans men as "a realistic way to do mpreg" not only dismisses the very real problems that trans men face when looking to start a family, but also reduces them to little more than a plot convenience.

2.2.4. It's not all that

While it may be difficult to believe going by some descriptions of the genre, not everything to do with Omegaverse is just smut and babies. While pregnancy is certainly a very significant trope in Omegaverse, it's not everything there is. As such the suggestion that authors only write Omegaverse to explain their mpreg idea can be dismissed outright.

Also, those pesky real life problems return here. Even if the story doesn't feature pregnancy, trans people in real life face all kinds of discrimination and challenges that an Omegaverse author can simply write around. Omegaverse, at its core, is fantasy, and it only follows the rules the writer chooses to set for the particular story. Trans people, however, have to live in the real world, and while there is certainly room for more optimistic stories where their various problems are less prominent or even don't exist, denying that core reality contributes to continuous harm towards real people.

Conclusion

There is no indication that the popularity of Omegaverse has any negative effect on the popularity of stories with trans characters. While there is a clear correlation between Omegaverse and mpreg stories, mpreg is by no means the only thing in Omegaverse that authors are interested in. Furthermore, equating male omegas with trans men ignores the myriad problems trans men face in real life while also reducing them to their reproductive organs in a way that can easily be seen as invalidating their identity.

TL;DR: Omegaverse is more than just pregnancy, trans men aren't just a magic trick for making your mpreg "realistic", and if authors want to write trans characters they will (and do) write trans characters. Stop using real, vulnerable people as a weapon against a genre you're not personally into.