Is All Mpreg Omegaverse?

A while ago, I saw a fairly popular OV author put up a social media post with the question “What Is Mpreg?”

In this post, the author went on to explain a bit about mpreg. Curious, I perused the post. After all, this is a “big name,” if you will, so I wanted to see what their definition of mpreg was.

And I was horrified to find that, well, they were … wrong.

Mpreg Falls Broadly into Two Categories

The first assertion in this post was that mpreg can be divided, roughly, into two broad categories: shifter and non-shifter.
This is … technically not incorrect, although I’d argue it glosses over some nuance. Does non-shifter mpreg include things like demons and vampires? What about aliens? Aliens and demons could really cross lines here: they might shift (a la foxes in my The Fox Returns), but the important thing is they’re demons. What about aliens with animalistic features? An example might be the kroakka in Evan and the Alpha. They’re not shifters, strictly speaking, but they are aliens.

So, does non-shifter include anything non-human, or is “non-shifter” meant to mean “human”?

It’s not entirely clear, but, as I said, this isn’t technically wrong. Demons might be shifters, if they can shift their shape, and aliens might be non-shifters, even though they’re not humans.

Okay. I’m not entirely sold here, but this isn’t where the definition went off the rails.

Non-Shifter Mpreg Is Not Always Omegaverse

The next part of the the post proceeded to go on about shifters, which made a bit of sense. Mpreg in non-human creatures, like werewolves or demon shifters, is fairly standard, and it’s usually explained either as some funky biology or magic.

Then we came to the non-shifter stuff. The post proceeded to discuss how non-shifter mpreg uses alpha, beta, omega dynamics—

And my brain came to a screeching halt. Wait a minute, I asked, is this seriously saying all non-shifter mpreg is omegaverse?!

I had to stop and rant to someone. My brain was well and truly broken.

Not All Non-Shifter Mpreg Is Omegaverse

So, what’s so wrong with the definitions this post is using? There are a few problems—such as suggesting a/b/o dynamics are only “sometimes” called omegaverse and that the term “OV” is more connected to M/F stories.

I refuse to yield on this point: omegaverse, a/b/o, whatever we happen to be calling it these days, is an inherently queer trope. It was first codified in m/m fanfic, and it remains an incredibly queer trope. It’s only been in the last few years that it’s exploded in popularity in M/F fiction. The problem is that M/F fiction is importing this queer trope without doing the queer analysis the trope demands. But that’s another rant for another time.

The bigger problem here isn’t bending to M/F fiction as the owner of “omegaverse” (OV is simply the latest term for the trope, after we moved away from a/b/o, which has harmful connotations because it can be conflated with a slur, and a/b/o dynamics was too much of a mouthful—M/F does not own it). It’s conflating mpreg and omegaverse.

Omegaverse is one (very popular) trope that is easily adapted to mpreg scenarios. In fact, the entire structure of this worldbuilding trope make it pretty much ideal for mpreg scenarios. I’ve discussed how I was writing quasi-omegaverse fiction back in 2005, before “omegaverse” was even a thing.

Yet we have to remember that the omegaverse trope wasn’t codified until 2009. So, while I was writing stuff that was reminiscent of it in 2005—four years before proper codification—I think that points to a very plain fact: non-shifter mpreg predates omegaverse.

Ergo, not all non-shifter mpreg can be omegaverse, just as all omegaverse stories aren’t mpreg fiction.

What Other Explanations Are There?

As I noted, omegaverse has become an incredibly popular trope in mpreg circles, precisely because it’s so easy to use. I’ve discussed how authors could potentially move away from it in their worldbuilding, but the problem would largely be codifying the discussion. Let’s say an author wanted to create a third gender in their book, a “male” that can reproduce as a “female.” This is essentially the male omega of the omegaverse—and that language already exists. Readers understand it and even seek it out, so why would you go to the trouble of creating a whole new framework?

You wouldn’t. You’re simply going to adopt the omegaverse. Omegaverse is an incredibly flexible worldbuilding trope too, which means you can sort of pick and choose what trappings you like, leave the ones you don’t like, and then bend it around until you create something you do like.

We can see why mpreg authors use omegaverse then; it’s an incredibly convenient shorthand that puts a ready-made framework onto their work, which allows them to market it to the readers they want to reach.

Cool!

That doesn’t mean it’s the only framework out there.

Science and Magic Save the Day

But what other frameworks exist? One of them is the pseudo-scientific explanation: someone is running an experiment (a la Junior). I’ve definitely seen this one a fair bit. Another is “a wizard did it.” This usually involves some sort of magic spell or something of the sort. Let me tell you, that one was popular in Naruto fandom back in the day. Ninjas mucking around with ninjutsu? Oops, Naruto’s Sexy no Jitsu went wrong? Orochimaru did something to Sasuke to change his biology? A potion is similar to a syringe, and both of these explanations work just fine when it comes to an author figuring out how to wrangle mpreg into their story.

There is, of course, the “other species” argument: werewolves, vampires, demons, fairies, and aliens are all common enough in fiction, and the argument would go that none of them are necessarily playing by human rules when it comes to reproduction. This is where the omegaverse tends to be adopted, though. If you have a fairy or an elf, and you want to argue they don’t have human gender roles or they have different sexes than humans, the OV trope offers a convenient shorthand for explaining that. That doesn’t always mean it’s strictly “omegaverse.” Take, for example, A Stranger Sort of Fairy Tale. Although this book doesn’t include mpreg, it has an mpreg set-up: the fae, in this story, have three types of individuals, one of which is effectually a male who can get pregnant. One of the main characters, Viridian, struggles with gender identity as a result of this.

We Do Have Real-Life Mpreg (People Just Like to Ignore It)

And this is where we get some more potential explanations—explanations that I think a lot of readers and writers prefer to ignore.

Mpreg actually does exist in real life—in the form of trans men. These are men who can get pregnant. They are, for all intents and purposes, “real life” omegas—or the closest thing that exists in real life, anyway. Main Squeeze is an example of this type of story, one that lacks an omegaverse framing. Evan and the Alpha could be seen as another version of this: Evan undergoes “feminization,” becoming “an omega.” Sobek indicates this is natural and normal among the kroakka, but for Evan, we might imagine it’s akin to the trans experience. Despite this, Evan retains his male identity. Marty Yoon, on the other hand, is AFAB, so there’s no “feminization” needed to make Marty capable of carrying offspring.

Other biological explanations abound. There are plenty of animals that change their sex over the course of their lifespan. Clownfish are one example. Sea angels are hermaphrodites. There are chimeras, and there are even examples of intersex frogs. Even among humans, there are intersex and trans people, so the long and short here is that biology is not black-and-white—and that gives mpreg writers room to play.

Why Are We So Afraid of Trans Narratives?

And here comes the crux of the omegaverse issue: it’s a trans trope. There. I said it.

Every single “omega male” you’ve ever read about is either intersex or trans. That’s what I mean when I say omegaverse is an inherently queer trope. If there is an “omega male” in your story, then you are reading a narrative that has normalized transness in some shape or form. In most cases, it’s been done unconsciously; the writer is maybe not aware that this is a trans trope, or maybe they’re unwilling to acknowledge it. Plenty of readers are unwilling to acknowledge it.

If you have a cisgender human male “feminized” to be able to carry a child, you have a trans fem narrative. If you have an “omega male” who was born that way, you’re looking at a trans man or an intersex individual. No two ways around it, folks: omegaverse is trans-verse.

The question is why we’re so afraid to embrace that reality. Ask most mpreg readers and they will vehemently deny that they like trans narratives. In fact, many of them will say outright that they don’t want to read about trans men. And we certainly don’t seem to want to read about trans women; as I’ve discussed before, plenty of narratives stop well short of having the supposedly cisgender dude who can suddenly, magically get knocked up question why he still thinks of himself as “a man.”

Other Tropes Are Just as Guilty

This happens outside the omegaverse trope as well. Even with “a wizard did it” explanations, mpreg writers often avoid issues of gender identity and transness. Yet we still see mpreg and tropes like omegaverse becoming more popular, which is fascinating.

I think it harks back to the issue of the taboo: transness is often seen as deviant, although it can also be interpreted as divine. Certainly, in this moment, it’s considered strange, if not to some degree an illness, by some sectors of Western thought. And I think that goes a long way to explaining the current interest in mpreg: it’s taboo, perhaps now more than ever. After all, the Norse had myths that feature mpreg, as did the Greeks. So the idea is not new, just as trans people are not some new phenomenon.

So Why Isn’t “A Wizard Did It” More Popular?

If omegaverse is inherently trans, and people are uncomfortable with trans narratives, why the hell is it so popular? So much so that we have “big name” authors out here conflating it as being synonymous with mpreg?

I think that has to do with the fact that “a wizard did it” is often less convincing. Mpreg writers glommed onto omegaverse because it works so well, whereas other frameworks take a bit more work to make them believable. I’m not saying it’s not possible, but there’s a big gap between a crack fanfic that basically does mpreg “because I said so” and a piece of original fiction that’s trying to get the reader to suspend their disbelief.

That’s the one thing I think this author’s post got right: mpreg requires the reader to suspend their disbelief. Any explanation worth its salt will help the reader do that, although suspension of disbelief is one reason mpreg authors often simply gloss over any kind of in-depth discussion of how mpreg is possible or how it works. (You’ll note the “hand wave, because I said so” attitude drives me nuts, hence the pains I take in my own work to explain the why and the how.)

OV Has Become Shorthand

Readers know OV, they understand it, they love it and seek it out. The second you slap “OV” on something, readers already know what they’re in for—and they are thus willing to suspend their disbelief, no further explanations required.

If you try to sell them on any other explanation—like a wizard did it—you’re going to have to work a little harder. And that is why omegaverse has become so, so popular—even if it really should be a trope that makes a lot of mpreg girlies more uncomfortable than it seemingly does.

With all that said, I’m going to get back to work writing some non-OV non-shifter mpreg fiction, because that is absolutely a thing that exists. And, if people are out here conflating OV with mpreg—even the people who fucking write it—then we clearly need more of that “a wizard did it” type mpreg.