Dr. Michele Meek’s book, The Ambiguity of Consent: Consent Puzzles in Film, Television, Public Discourse, and the Law (Routledge 2026) explores the complex, often contradictory nature of consent in contemporary society.
This collection examines how consent is expressed and debated across media, legal systems, and public discourse, particularly in the height of “consent culture” in the 2020s. It interrogates the assumptions behind familiar frameworks like affirmative consent and informed consent and raises critical questions about power, communication, and interpretation. Through case studies and cultural analysis, this book addresses issues such as the blurred lines between “bad sex” and assault, the instability of consent for minors, and how normative models often fail to account for structural inequalities. It invites readers to rethink consent not as a fixed standard, but as a site of ongoing negotiation and ambiguity.
The book is available for purchase through Routledge (in print or digital format), Amazon, and other bookstores.
Note: 20% off sales at Routledge with discount code 2gAFLY1
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: The Unraveling of a Framework—The Puzzling Nature of Consent
Michele Meek (Request free copy of the intro).
Part I: Blurred Boundaries: Highlighting the Untenability of Consent Frameworks
2. The Televisual is Political: Hermeneutical Justice, Consciousness-Raising, and Bad Sex on TV
Zoe Moss
3. Revisiting the Age of Sexual Consent: The Impact of “Romeo and Juliet Law” in Japan
Xiao Zhou
4. The Changing Landscape of Consent in Film: From Not a Pretty Picture to How to Have Sex
Magda Vaz
5. Trans Youth on Trial: The Rise of the Consent-in-Crisis Spectacle
Mia Cecily Florin-Sefton
Part II: Dominance Dynamics: Exploring Power Differentials Embedded in Consent Culture
6. Shades of Gray: Representing the Gray Area of Consent in Kristen Roupenian’s “Cat Person”
Emily Rosman
7. Stolen Kisses: Examining Bollywood’s Portrayal of Consent for Kissing in Romance Films
Simran Tapaswi
8. We Need to Talk About Banshee: Graphic Television Violence and Consent
Meghan Jordan
9. Being “Handsy” or “Hands Off”: #MeToo, COVID-19, and the Association of Hands with (Non)Consensual Touch
Michele White
10. Consent in the Classroom: Feminist and Queer Debates around Power and Pedagogy
Avik Sarkar
Part III: Creative Disruptions: Reimagining Consent Paradigms through Alternate Frameworks
11. Negotiating Male Anxiety and Accountability Regarding Consent in Netflix’s Raising Voices
Verónica Mondragón Paredes
12. PDF Files as Accusations: A Body Politics Perspective on Overseas Chinese Students’ Nonconsensual Sexual Experience in Self-Sharing Online Archives
Edward Jiru Zeng
13. Asexuality Inclusion as Consent Solution: Law & Order SVU as Case Study
Lynn Deboeck
14. Consent as Plaything: Consent Practices through the Lens of Queer Game Studies
Patrick Munnelly and David Riche