I’ve seen more and more people, Australian and not, pushing back on this the past couple of years, and I think most of my followers already know it, but since I just ran into it, it seemed worth mentioning: generally, if you’re discussing alpha/beta/omega tropes or fic or dynamics, it’s best to either write it out fully, as alpha/beta/omega, or call it omegaverse. or A/O, or A/O/B, or…almost anything else, really. the commonly-used abbreviation/acronym for “alpha/beta/omega” is a very offensive racist slur in Australia. (yes, even when you put slashes between the letters — that makes it clearer that you’re using it in the fannish context, not as a racist slur, but it doesn’t really obscure the word itself. I know for me, if a new AU concept took the world by storm, a criminal AU where the possible roles were, say, killer/investigator/kidnapper/executioner, slashes between the letters of the abbreviation wouldn’t actually help hide the antisemitic slur or make me feel much more comfortable with it, and I think a lot of us would not be thrilled if it were slurs we’re more familiar with!)
I’ve been seeing “omegaverse” used a lot more recently, and heard more people mentioning it in general, so I think this is catching on. but I just opened a silly little uquiz and then immediately closed it because the very first question used the abbreviation, so for people who might not have heard this yet, now you know!
Singlehandedly improving Australian-US relations in one Tumblr post.