More people who have 0 familiarity with omegaverse: "I didn't expect Knot to have gender roles/gendered language. Isn't it an omegaverse? This is 2026, why isn't he allowed to work!!!"
Yes, grasshopper. That's like half of the point of the omegaverse (even if the authors don't always expressly intend for it to be so).
The omegaverse is a fictional universe where people with penises who identify as male can get pregnant. Because this is one of the pillars of the omegaverse (one of the others being that they are basically human wolves--but critically, not werewolves), these stories address questions we, in real life, often grapple with: what if a cisman could get pregnant? Would he still be a piece of shit (if he already is)? How would the world treat him? Does sexism exist because of bioessentialism or are there other mechanisms at play? Would he understand the plight of women regardless of their ability to get pregnant? Would the world turn on its head?
So many omegaverse stories intentionally and unintentionally answer these questions. Hell, a big point of contention in the community is whether children should call their omega parents "mom" or "dad" (I argue that it really doesn't matter and is based on the people involved. I know several real-life WLW families where one ciswoman parent goes by "daddy"). We even see in the Thai BL industry that Domundi bottoms some men prefer to use female pronouns, so why would a fictional child calling a cisman "mom" be any different?
And quick tangent on this: I think people reject omegas so much because of the misogyny and internalized misogyny surrounding pregnancy. That's why the "omega mom or dad" debate in omegaverse BLs persists despite authors making the stylistic choice to have the omega parent referred to as "mom." And it's why there's a growing trend of authors either replacing omegas with enigmas (a type of hyper-alpha that can dominate alphas and, importantly, CANNOT GET PREGNANT) or turning genderbending cismale characters into cisfemale characters so that they can write gendernormative straight romances under the guise of slash fiction.
Another, longer, tangent: I think I've said this before but I actually don't care if gay cismale characters use terms like ผัว/เมีย ("pua"/"mia") if that's their choice. Is it heteronormative? Probably. But I think that the heteronormativity conversation is an example of thinking you're far left but in practice being right of center. Often, by telling gay people that they can't be in a relationship that looks like some straight relationships, it's telling them that there's only one right way to be gay. It's like telling a woman who likes to cook that she can't like cooking because that would be subscribing to a gender role. In other words, it's depriving that person of a choice they consciously made, and I'm not a big fan of that. For Thai BLs, specifically, there's also the language aspect of it. Most Thais say "พ่อแม่" ("phaw-mae") meaning "mom and dad" instead of "parents." And this is actually a pattern in Thai language where instead of using one neutral term, Thais use compound words or more specific words to express a concept. For example, the word for "sibling" is "พี่น้อง" ("phi-nong"). If you're familiar with Thai, you know that "phi" and "nong" refer to older siblings and younger siblings, respectively. When you say "phi", you're literally saying "older sibling," but when you combine it with "nong", you're suddenly just saying "sibling."
All that to say, if two gay cismale characters want to call each other husband and "wife," there's nothing inherently wrong with that. I argue there can be positives to it, but that's for another time. I also agree that in Knot specifically, if Phatsa doesn't like being referred to using feminine pronouns (which, I'm actually not sold on that being the case--I think he just doesn't like the idea of being married to Nakhun, no matter how you word it), then the characters disrespecting his harmless choice are in the wrong.
Anyway, I don't know where Knot will end up falling on the spectrum on the whole husband-wife, mom-dad, brother or sister in law conversation, but, at least on the gender roles end of it all, it's clear that they're going for a critique on traditional gender roles associated with mothers (staying at home, not working, caring for children, etc.). I'm personally very interested to see more on this front. I really liked the scene where Phatsa practically begged Nakhun to work because it showed that even though Phatsa is trying to break the mold of a typical omega, he still has to ask and use his access to a powerful alpha to do so. That's a very nuanced concept that I don't think many people clocked. I'm enjoying this ride so far, even with all my own critiques on the show (and peoples' reviews of the show), so fingers crossed on the episodes moving forward.
