lux-obscura answered your question: Omegaverse Headcanon Question Time!

Do people have a hard time reconciling the “sex-crazed omega in heat” stereotype with the “benevolent matriarchal omega” stereotype?

Oh, almost missed this one!  And it’s so cool!

I think there IS a certain disconnect there, yeah.  The ‘nurturing/protective omega’ motif is a very strong, deeply anchored one.  It goes back so far in history that it’s one of those things that people argue might exist because actually hard-wired in omega instincts and psychology.  They very much partake of the ‘mama bear’ image—caring and warm to their loved ones, but savage when roused to protective anger.  They’re seen as the bodyguard who would take a bullet for love, quietly self-effacing, standing in the shadows at the shoulder of their lover till they’re called on to sacrifice.

You can just imagine the tragic literature surrounding them, I’m sure. XD

But that’s all…controlled.  It’s…not passive, but there’s a sense of possession to it.  Phrased romantically, their lover/loved one owns them in the ways of the heart.  (Less romantically, along with that poetic sentiment came the very real social norms and expectations of the omega being subordinate to their spouse or lover—who was naturally expected to be an alpha or beta.)

The ‘sex-crazed omega’ side of things is far more disturbing to people, because the omega has POWER during heat.  He has little control over himself, but he has one hell of a lot of ability to influence others.  Alphas in particular—but betas quite strongly as well—basically lose themselves around an omega in heat.  They cease to be able to rely on their own logic or rational judgment.  And it’s a very physical, hard-to-resist thing.  An alpha who’s already in love with and happily married to someone else may or may not have the strength of will to shake off the effects of an omega in heat.

You can imagine there are sagas and romantic tales about this, too—particularly playing on the alpha/woman/omega love triangle.  ”Is their love/virtue/faith strong enough to overcome the omega’s temptation?”  The seductive omega plays a role in other stories too, though, as the test of patriotic loyalty in a tale or war or politics, or the moment of crisis where the self-possessed alpha duke or whatever totally loses it and does something destructively stupid that sends things off the rails.

So as you can see, there’s a lot of fear and distrust of the omega in heat.  They’re wildly desirable, sex on the hoof—like holy fuck, who WOULDN’T want to tap that?—but at the same time, the decision is not precisely in the power of men (particularly men in power—i.e. historically, mostly alphas) to make.

And to be fair, it’s all complicated by the fact that yeah, given the forces at work, it wasn’t exactly uncommon for somebody to make a stupid sex-based decision that fucked up potentially quite a number of lives and alliances after the fact.  So…it’s frustratingly hard for omegas to argue back against this kind of BS, because there’s a lot of truth to it.  It’s not their fault, of course, but the people in power want to lay the blame SOMEWHERE and they’re not keen to change a social system that favors them, so traditionally the blame’s been laid on the omega.

Again, this is a pattern that women were hardly exempt from.  Omega biology makes it more extremely noticeable for them, but the keen awareness of it also overflowed to make alphas even more snotty about the whole ‘feminine allure/feminine wiles’ thing.  And historically betas have repeatedly been like, “Well, if you’re going to be stupid about this, maybe you should let US be in charge of some things.” Which…only ever worked indifferently, because alphas always had that extra aggressive, ambitious edge to them that tended to drive them to power.

Your SMARTEST alphas, though—they’ve often had a pattern of staffing a lot of their advisory positions and mission-critical offices with the most talented, driven betas.  And that has historically been the most stable organizational arrangement, for governments, armies, and businesses.  

Women have faced much the same challenges of breaking into that structure as they have in the real world.  Omegas have an even harder time, because their presence can be legitimately disruptive (well, theoretically; it’s not actually like they’re parading bare-arsed down the hallway during heat) and there’s that whole “takes a week and a half off work four times a year” bit that kinda puts a dent in the sick leave.  They still have a lot of trouble pursuing any kind of skilled career, because of this.  And John is honestly going to have quite a bit of trouble finding work as a civilian doctor, outside fairly specific venues (and he’s not a pediatrician, gynecologist, or obstetrician, which are the specialties where he’d actually stand any decent chance of stable employment).