Membership Program
Impolite Society: A Romance & Revolutionary Practice Guild
Increase your equity and social justice capacity in ways you didn’t even know you could.
Romance is not fluff.
It's not or silly, unserious, "chick lit".
It will not turn your brain to mush, nor will it give you "unrealistic" expectations for your relationships.
In fact, romance challenges deeply held norms about joy, desire, and who has the "right" to love and be loved.
That is why it is treated with such disdain. Because at its core, romance is power.
By mixing passion with politics, and love with liberation, romance contains the power to completely disrupt the narratives that sustain oppression.
Such as…
The Behind Closed Doors Effect
This narrative is used to claim that any abuses of power that happen in private (aka “behind closed doors”) - such as in the bedroom, a classroom, a boardroom, or a staff room - have absolutely nothing to do with how power is abused in the wider world.
Impolite Society is the only membership program that teaches you how to solve for this Effect, by guiding you through the world of inclusive, expansive romance.
Through a carefully curated set of bi-monthly readings that centre the stories of Black and other marginalized people, combined with an associated list of revolutionary practice themes, we centre our attention and analysis on one of the deepest, most intimate relationships a person can have.
Our on-demand video reading guides, and live facilitated learning sessions serve to activate our sense of justice - emotional; political; economic; and cultural - and build our capacity to create the kinds of justice we want to see in the world.
This is how we strategize for the fact that what happens “behind closed doors” is inextricably linked to what happens outside of them.
Take Our “Romance & Revolution” Quiz!
This archetypes quiz will help you find out what your specific revolutionary style is, so that you can (quietly) change the world, your way.
You'll also get a nifty romance recommendation, too!
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Note: You will be required to enter your email address at the end of the quiz. This will allow you to receive your quiz results, and also add you to "Wonderfolk", the email marketing list for Fictive Kin Equity Lab. If you do not wish to remain on the list, you may unsubscribe at any time.
Founding Member Testimonials
FAQ
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If you read copious amounts of British historical romance, you’ll find that “polite society” is weaponized in all sorts of ways to keep the main characters from living life on their terms. This usually means seeking some sort of economic, familial, romantic, and / or bodily independence.
“Impolite Society” is, therefore, a nod to the fact that the romance we read is focused on challenging norms, transgressing taboos, and just generally being unapologetic about any of the things society - historical or contemporary - says you’re “supposed” to be sorry for.
This includes, but is not limited to: being Black; being queer; being poor; being foreign; being female; being “too sensitive”; and, of course, reading romance at all.
“Impolite Society” is about learning, vicariously through the characters’ journeys, how to reject the shame and guilt that dominating, oppressive, imperialist, and unjust society thrives on, so that we can find our way to creating a better, more inclusive, humane, and just wor
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For BI & POC people, people who are 2SLGBTQIA+, people who are neurodivergent, and basically anyone who doesn’t belong to one or more dominanting identity groups, the vast majority of romance can be challenging to read: at best, it doesn’t reflect our lived realities and, at worst, it reinscribes white cultural supremacy, especially in its most insidious forms.
That’s why, in Impolite Society, we read romance that’s sexy and fun, sweet and smart… and that reminds us that being human is as much a political activity as it is a personal one.
So when we discuss and analyze the politics of the story and the characters’ journeys, we’re also practicing how to apply this in our own world-changing work.
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“Guild” is our “fancy” way of saying that we’re not just reading romance for romance’s sake. (Although, to be clear there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that!)
We’re reading specific, curated material in a way that’s intentionally focused on learning, development, and increasing our capacity to make meaningful social change.
We read to get better at the equity and social justice work we do, so that the world in which we live gets better, too.
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It can be! You don’t have to be part of an equity-owed group to join. The vast majority of the novels selected for the Society centre melanated and marginalized characters, but their stories - their journeys of self-discovery, resistance, and transformation - are valuable for everyone.
That being said, all members are expected to have an open mind, an open heart, a strong belief that equity and social justice are good things for everyone, and a willingness to engage with stories that may challenge their own lived experiences, biases, and assumptions about how the world works.
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Membership is offered on a monthly basis, and gives you access to Fictive Kin Equity Lab’s private Member Site where all of the program content for Impolite Society is hosted. The content includes:
on-demand video guides for each book
our monthly facilitated learning sessions; and
recaps of the meetings in cased you miss one.
You’ll also get access any other Society materials and events, such as movie nights and watch parties.
In the future, we hope to have guest hosts, author events, maybe a podcast, a conference, and other cool things we haven’t even dreamed up yet. ♥️
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Membership in the Society is offered at $39 CAD / month. You may pause or cancel your membership at any time.
How to Join Impolite Society
Welp…
Registration is currently on hiatus until July 7, 2026.
Click the link below to join our mailing list so that you don’t miss our re-opening day!