Written By: Sofia Tas-Castro
The Romance genre is notably the best selling and most sought after genre in bookstores today and in the past. Whether it’s fantasy romance, contemporary, or historical, there is a type of romance for every reader.
With the hype surrounding BookTok and its favoritism to the romance genre or books with a romance subplot, I tried my hand at reading a few titles and came across a glaring issue: the lack of consent between characters, whether it was sexual consent or consent in everyday life.
There are “dark” romances, where dubious consent or non-consent themes are present and even expected, but in other sub-categories of Romance, these concepts aren’t as expected.
What I thought was an issue in one novel ended up spreading to several others recommended through the platform and I found myself asking: why isn’t consent integrated into the dialogue? It seems that writers perceive consent to be a bodily reaction the female character has to the character she is engaging with or her acceptance of what is happening, but just because someone accepts what is happening or has a bodily response to it does not mean that they consent.
Keeping in mind that this is the most popular genre read today, these mixed messages surrounding consent can spread incorrect or even harmful messages to readers when they are popularized and even endorsed over and over again.
Consent not only needs to be written about more in Romance, but there need to be trigger warnings regarding these themes of dubious or non-consent themes, especially in books where it may not be expected. As readers, we need to push for these changes because whether we consciously acknowledge it or not, these ideas can impact views on consent and people’s expectations for intimate relationships. It is also our job to realize that what is read in books is purely that: in the book. Not everything written is meant to be applied to in real life but having fictional examples of consent can give readers exposure to positive examples of intimate relationships and books that do not have themes they may not be comfortable with.
