‘Dogfuck rapeworld’: Omegaverse fanfiction as a critical tool in analyzing the impact of social power structures on intimate relationships and sexual consent

Popova, Milena

Abstract

© 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This article examines the Omegaverse–a subgenre of sexually explicit fanfiction–and its engagement with issues of socially constructed power differentials and sexual consent. I argue that sexually explicit fanfiction, and the Omegaverse in particular, can be used as a critical tool to examine the relationship between power and consent in accessible ways which allow for affective, emotional and intellectual engagement with these issues. I approach the Omegaverse as a body of work marked by intertextuality, where individual stories are in dialogue with not only the source material but also each other and with writers and readers’ knowledge of the real world. I apply sexual script theory to the analysis of three Omegaverse fanfiction stories to examine how such stories articulate and explore disjunctures between sexual scripts at the socially and culturally mediated, interpersonal and individual levels. I draw from theories of sexual consent and insights from Fan Studies to show how the Omegaverse offers strategies for negotiating meaningfully consensual intimate relationships within wider power structures and dominant sexual scripts.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 2, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Feb 9, 2018
• Publication Date: Apr 3, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 17, 2017
• Journal: Porn Studies
• Print ISSN: 2326-8743
• Electronic ISSN: 2326-8751
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 175-191
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2017.1394215
• Keywords: sexual consent, fan fiction, Omegaverse, sexual scripts, romance, pornography
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/864001
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2017.1394215
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2017.1394215.
• Contract Date: Oct 3, 2017