Media
Kelly Sue DeConnick, Bitch Planet, 1-10, Image Comics: 2014-17.
- BP 1-5
- BP 6-10
- Download YAC Reader to view comic files
Star Trek: Discovery, Season 3 (Available on NYU Stream)
- All of Episode Four
- Episode 8 – Watch 9:45-13:09
Geek of the Week
Abha
- Omegaverse
- This is a very popular genre, especially in graphic novels. It is a fictional universe where there are 3 sub-genders, and where men can get pregnant. The previous link is a brief explanation of Omegaverse, but if anyone wants to read in depth, here’s another link.
- Unbelievable Space Love
Theory and Commentary
Dawn Ennis, “This ‘Star Trek’ Actor Came Out After Their Character Did,” Forbes, accessed February 2, 2021.
Henry Jenkins, “Non-Compliants, Brimpers, and She-Romps,” in The Oxford Handbook of Comic Book Studies, ed. Frederick Luis Aldama, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190917944.013.34.
Wendy Gay Pearson, “Queer Theory,” in The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction, ed. Mark Bould, 1st ed, Routledge Literature Companions (London ; New York: Routledge, 2009), 299–307.
Assignments
Essay 3 Due
1. How can queer people manage the polarity of maintaining unique identities and subcultures while at the same time existing without facing prejudice from mainstream society?
2. What is the purpose of G rated A/B/O fanfiction?
3. Is it worse to have no queer love stories, or to only have queer love stories steeped in tragedy?
1. Is the ABO gender setting another type of caste system?
2. How to interpret the close and direct relationship between pregnancy and power in the Omegaverse?
3. How do queers fit into the ABO gender system? Are there non-trinary people like non-binary people? Is there a fluid or non-senary (non-binary and non-trinary simultaneously) gender identity in the Omegaverse?
1) How does “Bitch Planet” interact with sci-fi and gender in a way that a film or a book couldn’t?
2) What is it about Science Fiction that makes it a space where Its/His/Her/Theirstory are explored more then in other genres?
3) Does the representation formed and created in sci-fi draw more fans to the genre?
1. In Unbelievable Space Love, were they dreaming about a relationship while stuck in space, or having flashbacks about their relationship? How did the scenery and change from animation the real-world clips contribute to this confusion and instability?
2. How does the transition from alpha/ beta/ omega in terms of exposure to pheromones play into irrational fears of proximity and ‘conversion’ in real life?
3. How does Sci Fi blur the lines between gender and race to visualize a more equitable future?
1. Although it’s becoming a very popular genre, BL often has a negative connotation/reputation. Why do you think that is?
2. What is it about Omegaverse that makes it uncomfortable for so many people?
3. As the concept of gender becomes more fluid, what does the future hold in terms of exploring themes of gender in science fiction?
1. Why can’t we let go of gender hierarchy, that discriminates between people who can give birth and people who can’t, even in fictional AUs?
2. Can the Omegaverse genre become useful for anything other than pure entertainment?
3. How will humans feel if AIs, robots, etc. develop the ability to change/manifest their own genders and sexualities?
1. Stealing this one directly from Kelly Sue: is it dangerous to represent and romanticize violence in media?
2. Why does the ABO system, after breaking the heteronormative boundaries of gender, reintroduce a system of power and oppression in which the impregnators are still oppressors and the impregnated are oppressed?
3. How can an Omega male be considered as “male” if he has a “female” reproductive role and a “feminine” gender role?
According to philosopher Sally Haslanger: “S is a woman iffdf S is systematically suborinated along some dimension (economic, political, legal, social, etc.), and S is “marked” as a target for this treatment by observed or imagined bodily features presumed to be evidence of a female’s biological role in reproduction.” (in “Gender and Race: (What) Are They? (What) Do We Want Them To Be?”)
Can we consider sf as an unbiased and un-gendered genre to begin with?
In what way is undoing gender, an act of political praxis?
Why does the omegaverse branch out only into 3 categories? Is too similar to upper/middle/lower class distinctions.
In what ways has Unbelievable Space Love forged memory and utopia in order to explore queerness?
1. Can we consider sf as an unbiased and un-gendered genre to begin with?
2. In what way is undoing gender, an act of political praxis?
3. Why does the omegaverse branch out only into 3 categories? Is too similar to upper/middle/lower class distinctions.
4. In what ways has Unbelievable Space Love forged memory and utopia in order to explore queerness?
1. How to interpret the ending of Unbelievable Space Love? Did the AI die of the crash or not?
2. ABO universe has long been a popular setting in Fanfiction, especially for BL works, and sci-fi is also very common as an AU (alternative universe) in Fanfiction, so is there any inherent relationship between sci-fi and the ABO system?
3. It seems that the ABO universe possesses the ability to challenge our gender and sexual norms. However, as I have observed in Fanfiction for a long time, ABO even reinforce the stereotype of masculinity and femininity, and tend to omit the majority working-class Beta to focus mainly on the sexual bond between Alpha and Omega. So how to understand such a tendency, or how to understand Fanfiction and the culture of BL?
1 Omegaverse was new to me, and amazing that it’s so big. The idea of boylove being safer to explore than gender is used to hide conflicts below the surface.
2. Gender is changing – as more people feel safe enough to speak about who they are – not who they’re told to be.
3. does aI have a gender? I don’t think so – since they aren’t sexual creatures. At least not now –