What Is an Omega? Rewriting Sex and Gender in the Omegaverse
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What is an omega? Rewriting sex and gender in omegaverse fanfiction Marianne Gunderson Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Gender Studies Centre for Gender Studies University of Oslo Blindern, Norway 17.11.2017 1 2 © Marinne Gunderson 2017 What is an omega? Rewriting sex and gender in the omegaverse. http://www.duo.uio.no/ Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo 3 4 Abstract This thesis examines the reinterpretation of sex and gender in omegaverse fanfiction. In omegaverse fanfiction, characters from popular culture are written into a parallel gender structure, as alphas, betas, or omegas. Using concepts from fan studies and feminist theory, this thesis analyzes three omegaverse fanfiction stories, asking how they intervene in discourses about sex and gender. It shows how omegaverse fanfiction treats discourses about sex and gender in the same way as it treats the original media texts, mining them for meaning in order to imaginatively transform them. As a result, omegaverse fanfiction can be read as critical commentary of sex and gender. This thesis argues that the speculative mode that is characteristic of the omegaverse genre makes it possible to explore the premises that underlie understandings of sex and gender without being bound by the strictures of reality. Through this speculative mode, omegaverse fanfiction creates a space where the discourses associated with sex and gender can be treated as a set of building blocks, with which individual authors can examine the inner logic of fictional gender systems on societies, relationships, and situations, examine their consequences, and imagine their downfall. Furthermore, by rewriting these discourses through a narrative, and onto familiar characters, the alpha/beta/omega system works as a node through which to imagine how specific reconfigurations of discourses about sex and gender would play out as lived, situated, meaningful experience. In the stories analyzed in this project, the figure of the omega is made to signify female-coded otherness, a personification of the multiple discourses by which women have been (and still are) constructed as other. By writing a male character as an omega, experiences of being treated as other in female-coded ways are imagined to be experienced by a character who represents the male norm. As a result of this double gendering, experienced of female-coded otherness are imported into the universal. Finally, it suggests that omegaverse fanfiction can be read as a kind of ‘low theory’, theory that exists at the margin of formal knowledge formations, creating alternative ways of talking and thinking about sex and gender. 5 6 Acknowledgements For their part in helping me complete this thesis, I am deeply grateful to the following people: My supervisors, Sara Orning and Erika Kvistad for sharing my enthusiasm for this project, and for all their encouragement, perceptive suggestions, and gentle criticism throughout the process of writing this thesis. The Center for Gender Studies at the University of Oslo, for providing the space for me to embrace the stranger strands of my academic interests. My friends at the Snirkler discord, for making me feel connected and human through it all. Ivan Dervisevic, for all his love, support, and patience. My cats, for sitting on my arms when I needed to take a break. And last, but not least, the authors of the stories I have been working with throughout this thesis, whose writing has inspired and delighted me, and who generously allowed me to add my thoughts to their work. Marianne Gunderson Oslo, November 2017 7 8 Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 7 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 11 1.1 Background: fanfiction and the omegaverse ............................................................. 12 1.2 Why research the omegaverse? ................................................................................. 17 1.3 Research questions and thematic delimitation........................................................... 20 1.4 Presenting the fics ...................................................................................................... 23 1.5 Thesis structure .......................................................................................................... 25 1.6 Selection and analysis ................................................................................................ 27 1.7 My approach to the texts ........................................................................................... 29 1.8 Ethical considerations ................................................................................................ 33 2 (Re)writing the omega body ............................................................................................. 36 2.1 Becoming omega: adolescent trials ........................................................................... 37 2.2 Biological imperatives: the mind/body duality ......................................................... 42 2.3 Medical knowledge and the regulation of omega bodies .......................................... 50 3 Power and oppression in the omegaverse ........................................................................ 60 3.1 Building unjust worlds: gendered dystopias of the omegaverse ............................... 61 3.2 Affective experiences of gendered oppression .......................................................... 68 3.3 Unequal relationships: romance and consent ............................................................ 77 4 Speculative genders and omega otherness ....................................................................... 95 4.1 Textual poaching ....................................................................................................... 95 4.2 Misogynist premises .................................................................................................. 96 4.3 Speculative gendering.............................................................................................. 100 4.4 Gendered embodiment ............................................................................................. 101 4.5 Omega otherness...................................................................................................... 103 4.6 The male omega....................................................................................................... 105 5 Concluding remarks ....................................................................................................... 108 References .............................................................................................................................. 110 9 10 1 Introduction After years of being valued more for what lay between his legs or in his head than who he was, it was hard to believe. Yet here they were, John close enough that every breath mingled, blue irises dark with desire and understanding as if, for once, he was reading Sherlock’s mind with ease. ‘You were a brilliant, mad, nutter of a man.’ He nudged Sherlock’s chin, encouraging him to meet his gaze again as if he could drive home the truth with eye contact alone. He licked his lips, his voice cracking as he forced out the words that Sherlock knew John would not find easy. ‘And you still are. Alpha, Beta, Omega… This –’ He cleared his throat, huffing out a sigh and squaring his shoulders. ‘This isn’t about any of that. It’s about who you are. Not what you are.’ (...) ‘You realise that the same is true of me?’ Sherlock murmured, licking his lips as John’s thumbs rubbed in circles, skirting inwards across the plane of his waist before retreating once more. ‘This isn’t about needing what your biology can offer.’ He watched the shadows changing in John’s eyes, seeing the gleam of joy ebb beneath the ever-encroaching clouds of reality. That expressive face fell into a faint frown, and John let out a deep sigh, his lips parting to outline all the obstacles Sherlock was so desperate to overlook. ‘Don’t,’ he implored, brushing two fingers across John’s mouth before he could speak. ‘We can’t dismiss the impact our respective genders have on our situation, particularly mine, but please – don’t say it.’ (BeautifulFiction 2014) This is an excerpt from The Gilded Cage, a fanfiction story written about the characters from the television show Sherlock. The passage follows after Sherlock has confessed his feelings for John, and John has divulged that he has been in love with Sherlock since they first met, long before he knew that Sherlock was an omega. Sherlock realizes that John, despite being an alpha, sees and loves Sherlock for who he is, “a brilliant, mad, nutter of a man,” instead of only wanting him for his reproductive functions, his ability to become pregnant. Even though neither John nor Sherlock wants to acknowledge it, the impact of their respective genders is impossible to ignore; as alpha and omega, John and Sherlock are positioned at opposite sides of a hierarchy that is encoded into everything from the laws that govern their lives to the biological processes of their bodies. The Gilded Cage is one of many fanfiction stories written in a genre