Quiet activism as feminist practice

Abstract

In this article, we discuss how women combat silencing in the face of violence and increased political turmoil through quiet activism in their day‐to‐day lives. Centering lengthy conversations with Arab women across London and notes from an ongoing collaboration with a feminist activist based in the US, we examine how wearable rhetorical objects can be used as a form of quiet activism in their flagging of identification and solidarity. While the precarity of feminist activism is not a novel topic, we focus on the politicization of the textile and its implications for the body of the wearer. We find that “quiet activism” is a feminist practice where implicit textiles (t‐shirts, jewelry, pins, and hats) are used as a means of persistence and resistance.