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Dark Matter: G-d help me, I’m starting to really like this show. I even like Poor Man’s Jayne, which took a while. Giving me something new with the time loop episode—I see what you did there, and I enjoyed it! I don’t remember time loops where (1) nobody believes him, (2) his memory is too bad the first dozen times around to convince anyone, and (3) he finally brings someone else in.
I’m not saying I’ve read comprehensively in A/B/O, but I’ve read a reasonable amount, and I think one reason it itches the back of my brain as a matter of worldbuilding is that, even where it isn’t all immutable biology, the discrimination that Omegas confront is so mustache-twirling; people are either egalitarian or into “barefoot and pregnant.” What’s missing is the implicit bias: the promotions they don’t get where there are perfectly reasonable explanations … while ten non-Omegas get promoted past. Not just the people who say they couldn’t vote for an Omega for president because what if some crisis developed during the President’s heat (though come to think of it, that should be a thing too), but the people who say they’d be willing to vote for an Omega, but just not this one. This specific Omega’s too compromised, too hardened by years in politics, too invested in the current system, not like the real civil rights activists.
Obviously, if A/B/O works for you, narratively or otherwise, you should totally write and/or read it! For me, though, I increasingly read it as not just a fantasy about biological determinism—even when authors challenge the determinism, you still get a fantasy about what discrimination looks like. Of course, very few non-A/B/O fics have realistic depictions of gendered disparities as a major factor either, but the proportion of A/B/O fics where the protagonists are bravely fighting for equality, either on a small or large scale, is larger and thus the issue seems more squarely avoided, as it were.
I’m not saying I’ve read comprehensively in A/B/O, but I’ve read a reasonable amount, and I think one reason it itches the back of my brain as a matter of worldbuilding is that, even where it isn’t all immutable biology, the discrimination that Omegas confront is so mustache-twirling; people are either egalitarian or into “barefoot and pregnant.” What’s missing is the implicit bias: the promotions they don’t get where there are perfectly reasonable explanations … while ten non-Omegas get promoted past. Not just the people who say they couldn’t vote for an Omega for president because what if some crisis developed during the President’s heat (though come to think of it, that should be a thing too), but the people who say they’d be willing to vote for an Omega, but just not this one. This specific Omega’s too compromised, too hardened by years in politics, too invested in the current system, not like the real civil rights activists.
Obviously, if A/B/O works for you, narratively or otherwise, you should totally write and/or read it! For me, though, I increasingly read it as not just a fantasy about biological determinism—even when authors challenge the determinism, you still get a fantasy about what discrimination looks like. Of course, very few non-A/B/O fics have realistic depictions of gendered disparities as a major factor either, but the proportion of A/B/O fics where the protagonists are bravely fighting for equality, either on a small or large scale, is larger and thus the issue seems more squarely avoided, as it were.
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You have put your finger on something that has always bothered me about this genre. I've had some trouble grasping why slave!fic doesn't squick me, but A/B/O does. I still struggle with it.
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