Came for the Smut, Stayed by Consent: Desire and Consent in Sarah J. Maas’s Fictional Worlds

Abstract

The emergence of the romance novel over the last roughly three hundred years has garnered much debate about the literary value of both the writing and content. However, the dismissal of the genre as “low brow” has much to do with the vast number of women writers and readers, reinforcing the misconception that only work by, about, and for men is worthy of literary study. In this article, I examine the new adult and adult fantasy romance novels of Sarah J. Maas as a potential vehicle for changing attitudes about gender norms, rape culture, and consent. Directed at an audience of younger women, Maas’s work offers safe spaces for women to explore their sexuality and unlearn harmful sexual and gender scripts. The audience benefits from these fictional examples as they reflect changing values regarding the traditional expectations of women, especially those that reinforce their position as passive objects. While these novels are often described as “trash” or “smut,” I suggest that popular romances, like Maas’s, provide spaces of radical and widespread reform due to their large readership. Maas offers narratives that push back against hegemonic masculinity and dominant rape myths in favor of developing a culture of consent, especially for her new adult readership.

Keywords

• consent culture
• fantasy
• new adult
• rape myths
• romance
• sarah j. maas
• sexual violence