At the Intersection of Tea Towels and Activism

Last Updated on October 23, 2024

My favorite blogger taught me about tea towels and activism. And sent me on a search for good activist gifts.

Ellen Hawley’s quirky humor makes me laugh every week. And she has me reading posts on subjects I have no interest in. I just finished reading a lengthy post on scones. I loved it.

Knowing that I write about activism, she sent me a message about the intersection of tea towels and activism: a site called Radical Tea Towel.

Even Ellen’s recommendations are funny. Here is the Radical Tea Towel description of tea towels:

What is a tea towel? Tea towel [noun]: (also known as a dish towel) a cloth used primarily for drying dishes. Tea towels were apparently first used by old English ladies to dry their fragile bone china. Today you can wave a tea towel at a demonstration.

My favorite is the Einstein tea towel.

This fun website got me thinking about holiday gift-giving. Are you having trouble deciding on activist gifts for your loved ones? Read on.

Activist Gifts (Other Than Tea Towels)

A Donation to Their Cause

Okay, it’s boring, but your activist will appreciate a donation to their cause.

If you don’t know where to donate in their honor, use charity evaluators that recommend organizations that are making an impact. Each charity goes through an extensive vetting process. While you are there, consider whether you should change your charitable giving to an effective charity. Give Well and Animal Charity Evaluators are my favorites.

Books

I ran across an article that makes book recommendations based on your Hogwarts house. Apparently, the Gryffindors are the Hogwarts activists. Sadly, this disappoints me since I align with the Hufflepuffs. But other books make good activist gifts.

The author recommends Rebecca Traister’s Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.

Bold Gryffindors were born to turn their anger into activism. So Rebecca Traister’s book about the revolutionary power of women’s anger will fascinate and inspire them.

I spent many hours doing research on activism. Here are my 10 favorite activism books:

1. Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference by William MacAskill.
2. The Activist’s Toolkit Updated! by Rex Burkholder
3. The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way by Hillary Rettig
4. Analyzing Performance Problems: Or, You Really Oughta Wanna–How to Figure out Why People Aren’t Doing What They Should Be, and What to do About It by Robert Mager and Peter Pipe
5. In the Tiger’s Mouth An Empowerment Guide for Social Action by Katrina Shields
6. Keep Marching: How Every Woman Can Take Action and Change Our World by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner
7. Inciting Democracy A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good Society by Randy Schutt
8. Animal Impact Secrets Proven to Achieve Results and Move the World by Caryn Ginsberg
9. Self-Care for Activists: A Guide to Clearing Yourself of Trauma While Working for a Better World by Erik Marcus
10. Feed the Resistance Recipes + Ideas for Getting Involved by Julia Turshen

Anti-Surveillance Activist Gifts

My activism doesn’t require anti-surveillance but perhaps your activist’s work does. Here is a recommendation for anti-surveillance activist gifts from Care2.com:

Privacy is sacred for activists, especially those doing high-stakes work. But protest attendees frequently face surveillance from a wide array of people, including police officers and critics of their message. Help keep a loved one’s information secure with an anti-surveillance kit. A baseball cap or bandana can help conceal someone’s identity in photos and on security cameras. A cheap, prepaid phone can help someone stay in touch with fellow activists — without getting their everyday phone confiscated or mined for information.

Your Time

Rather than a gift, help them with other aspects of their life. Then they can focus on their passion. This is particularly necessary for women, who end up with the brunt of emotional labor in their households. If you do pitch in, don’t pepper her with questions about how to do the job. That is putting the emotional labor on her. Instead, pick something you know how to do and make it happen for her. For example, pick up a tea towel and do the dishes.

Your Thanks (And Tea Towels)

Activism is hard work and thank yous make wonderful activist gifts. How motivating is it to be reminded of the change you’ve made? Make sure that happens for your activist. And maybe add tea towels.

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