Oh yeah, I was thinking a lot about a/b/o fic when we were discussing double-down on heternormativity. It's basically the pinnicle of it, because your also changing biology in those fics to make one character more female.

That being said, I think some a/b/o fic can be used to explore gender in our society, etc - but for the most part, the trope is pretty much an excuse to have a regressive gender-role romance from the 1970s and 80s and somehow avoid the feminist criticism of it because you're supposedly using men.

Though, again, as I said elsewhere, I'm fine with these things as kind of, kinks of the id - just as long as there is an understanding that that's all it is.