The Attraction of the Omagaverse: Give Biology a Voice

Omagaverse refers to novels set in a universe/alternative Earth where (certain) men can become pregnant (omegas).

It is an expansive universe. Some stories postulate an alternate universe where male pregnancy is natural; some stories use a sci-fi explanation where women are gone and male omegas have been genetically created for the continuation of the human race. Some worlds include "shifters" (alphas and omegas who are human and animal). Some worlds are deliberately "non-shifter".

I enjoy some Omagaverse novels; I dislike others. What I find fascinating about Omagaverse novels in general is how much they delve into issues that have become nearly taboo in certain sectors of society, namely, hardwiring and biology.

As David Murray points out in The Madness of Crowds, people have dealt with the hardware of being female or being male for generations. Unfortunately, the "born this way" approach is being replaced and even attacked by people who want to deny that hardware is a real thing at all.

Until the last decade or so, sex (or gender) and chromosomes were recognized to be among the most fundamental hardware issues in our species. Whether we were born as a man or a woman [Murray compassionately goes on later to talk about an often ignored topic: intersex individuals] was one of the main, unchangeable hardware issues of our lives. Having accepted this hardware, we then all found ways--both men and women--to learn how to operate the relevant aspects of our lives. . . Everything became scrambled when the argument became entrenched that this most fundamental hardware issue of all was in fact a matter of software. The claim was made, and a couple of decades later it was embedded and suddenly everyone was meant to believe that sex was not biologically fixed but merely a matter of 'reiterated social performance.' All the rage--including the wild, destructive misandry, the double-think, and the self-delusion--stems from this fact: that we are being not just asked, but expected, to radically alter our lives and societies on the basis of claims that our instincts all tell us cannot possibly be true.

Star Trek: TOS argued that reducing everyone to an abstract

identity is a negative. Differences are to be

celebrated, not wiped from existence.

I concur with Murray's assessment. Sometimes people do not feel at home in their own bodies, a topic that deserves discussion. But it is increasingly unsettling that a woman who develops breasts and hips and menstruates is supposed to pretend that these physical realities are unrelated to her experiences, personality, and even choices. There is an odd Victorian insistence that a woman bury her body's biology beneath a mental veneer, to replace, "Hey, humans are mammals!" with "But what do I call myself?"

It is shameful to me how many young women are being encouraged to adopt shame, to practically apologize for their animal, mammal, tangible bodies. It often feels as if the body a woman is born with is less important, even less valid, than the body a person creates through plastic surgery. I guess feminism is a three steps forward, two steps back kind of process.  

Yup, even shifter Omegaverse novels are

more honest than much current discussion.

In the Omagaverse universe, thankfully, the reality of genetics and biology still carry weight. Attraction. The desire to protect by the alpha. The bond with a child. "Mothering" (some Omagaverse novels use the term generally to refer to both male and female omegas; some do not). Medical issues. Physical issues. All the things that accompany hardware are given space on the page.

It isn't that such things don't get debated by Omagaverse novels. They do! And differences and variations within alphas and omegas are influential elements within the plots. Ultimately, the biological realities are negotiated with, not rejected as too old-fashioned to be taken seriously.

The Omagaverse brings animal/mammal/biological instincts and hardwiring back to the table--to be pondered, to be examined, to be embraced or challenged, but not simply ignored or sneered at. The male omega is, in many ways, a stand-in for women, but a stand-in who is allowed to speak, to say, "Hey, I'm an omega. This is how I actually feel. This is what my body actually does. Don't dismiss me."

Fantasy accomplishes what no amount of social argument has been able to do.

What a relief.