Today I was reading comments under some funny omegaverse video about wanting social justice for omegas. As usual, there were takes speculating about writers' internalized misogyny. Somebody said "no more omegaverse bioessentialism". And I think what these people are missing about omegaverse is that the bioessentialism is often kind of the point.
Omegaverse is, first and foremost, for porn. A myriad of wonderful creative interpretations notwithstanding, in its most basic form, it's about people who have innate sex roles that (and here's the key) do not exist in real life. It utilizes the eroticism of those innate sex roles for power dynamics, for fuck-or-die scenarios, for erotic rape fantasies, for immersive bdsm fantasies, with a degree of separation from reality. You can write, for instance, about a character being forced by their own innate desires to submit to an unfamiliar dom and then experiencing sexual euphoria. For many writers and readers, this same scenario set up in the real world might come with way too many familiar red flags that hinder enjoyment. Consent issues, safe practices, all-too personal power dynamics, etc. The bioessentialism in omegaverse is a hall-pass to ignore all that.
Porn about a virgin omega in heat losing their capacity for reason and falling helplessly onto the massive knot of a strange, domineering alpha isn't an outward representation of the writers' unexamined misogyny or an acceptance of male/female bioessentialism. More often than not, writers use omegaverse because they're only too aware of/uncomfortable with sexist bioessentialism to enjoy anything that evokes those assumptions in pornography. But the eroticism in innate sexual power dynamics is still something a lot of people want to tap into. So we've invented a fictional biology instead, where submission and dominance really are an innate, chemical reality for the characters.
But if that's not your kink, there's plenty of room to invent, and to examine societal and interpersonal dynamics. Wanting social justice for omegas is a great creative opportunity. There's infinite ways to mirror our own experiences with omegaverse or to speculate on unfamiliar experiences. You can break down bioessentialist assumptions in omegaverse if you want, you can fight for omega rights, all with a degree of separation from reality that allows for some comfort and freedom to explore. But even though some writers use omegaverse for insightful examination of their own beliefs about sex and gender, it's a mistake to assume everyone is doing this. More often than not, dynamics in omegaverse don't represent something the writer actually believes about gender and sexuality so much as it represents an escape from it.
People want to enjoy immersive, transgressive fantasy without having to stomach all the real-world socio-historical realities that make it transgressive. So they invent a world where people have an excuse to give into their desires: it's their instincts. It's their biology. They can't help it, and it's normal. The bioessentialism is fictional, and it's the point.
