AUTHOR FEATURE: Becca Rea-Tucker
Becca Rea-Tucker is a baker and pro-abortion activist with a passion for mixing sugar + strong opinions. She likes destigmatizing abortion, using baked goods as an artistic medium, talking about feelings, and all butter pie crust. She is the author of choose-your-own-adventure cookbook Baking by Feel, and publishes a weekly Substack newsletter called A Little Something Sweet. She lives in Austin, TX with her partner Rhys and very good dog Otie.
Baking by Feel is available now to order! Pick up a copy here.
FEMINIST caught up with the author to talk about her inspirations and goals as she encourages others to take part in #BakingbyFeel and advocate for others through your own self-expression →
Q: What is your personal mantra?
BRT: I love this Anais Nin quote: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
Q: What audience do you hope to reach? Why does your intended audience need to hear and understand your message?
BRT: I hope to reach those who are looking for a new way to feel their feelings and process their emotions. By engaging with our senses and doing something tactile, we’re able to settle into the present moment and meet the feelings that come up. It’s common for people to use cooking and baking as an outlet, for the entire gamut of emotions.
Baking by Feel is a tool and resource to enhance this existing phenomenon. I’ve compiled a list of tons of feelings you might be having and developed a recipe with each one in mind. You choose what to bake based on what you’re feeling - whatever that is. Baking by Feel is emotionally agnostic. In other words: whatever you’re feeling, it’s 100% OK. I don’t think it’s very helpful to spend time sorting feelings into buckets of “good” or “bad”, for a variety of reasons, like: When we label a feeling as “bad”, we often wind up inadvertently shaming ourselves for experiencing it. When really, you have nothing to be ashamed of! And, if we’re spending a lot of time trying to ascertain whether a feeling is okay to experience, we might actually be avoiding feeling it.
Q: What challenges did you face when publishing your book? How did you overcome them?
BRT: I firmly believe that you don’t have to choose just one lane to stay in - in my case, I create a lot of baking content and also a lot of pro-abortion content. So finding a publisher who was willing to embrace all of my work was a bit challenging. It involved a lot of rejection! But eventually I found an editor who understood and believed in my vision. I’m really proud to feature my abortion story in my cookbook (I think it may be the first time that’s happened!).
Q: The Sweet Feminist's baked goods and opinions have captivated the world. Can you explain how Baking By Feel touches on navigating the world's most pressing issues through baking and being in touch with one's emotions?
BRT: Sometimes people say things to me like, “Isn’t using baking/cooking as a medium antithetical to feminism?”. But to me, food and feminism are a natural pair! Food is so entwined with community, and community nurtures feminism. And there’s more than one community aspect of it - there’s preparing the food together, there’s eating the food together. And of course, no movement could survive without feeding its people. Baking by Feel is a lot more inner-focused than much of my work as The Sweet Feminist. It involves carving out space for ourselves and our emotions so we’re better able to navigate those pressing issues.
Q: To what extent does Baking by Feel touch on mental health and intersectionality?
BRT: I can describe my feelings to you in great detail, but it’s much harder for me to actually feel those feelings. In fact, for the vast majority of my years earthside I didn’t even know there was a difference between the two! But once my (brilliant, wonderful) therapist gently pointed out that there is in fact a distinction, I set out to try to feel. That’s way easier said than done, of course. But, notably, I found that it was easier for me to actually experience and process my feelings if I was simultaneously doing something with my hands. While it’s definitely not a replacement for therapy, Baking by Feel is a tool that can be used at home to support mental health and well-being.
Q: What advice would you give to aspiring or passionate bakers looking to make an impact in their communities by 'saying it with sugar'?
BRT: I believe people can and should use whatever medium is available to them to express themselves. I’m a baker, so I use cake! I like the pairing of something beautiful and nearly universally adored with political messages, because it makes people pay attention. They might be scrolling by and then be like oh wait - why is she talking about abolition on a cake? And then they’re drawn in and stop to engage with the idea.
I will say that I’m not patient enough to create extremely aesthetically pleasing cakes - my Sweet Feminist work looks like it was made in my home kitchen, because it is. So I encourage everyone to not get caught up in the details of making everything perfect, and just embrace saying it with sugar as a powerful, fun, and delectable artform.
Q: What do you hope to achieve through your work? How is #BakingbyFeel intertwined with feminism?
BRT: I hope to provide people with another tool in their kit to support their emotional well-being.
#BakingByFeel can be a feminist practice because it gives you the opportunity to exist in this moment with yourself - including your emotions. Engaging with and processing our emotions without judgment allows us to show up better for our relationships and communities. It’s also a practice that we’re just doing for ourselves, which is a feminist act, to take up that space and time to reflect inward doing something you enjoy.
Q: What does being an intersectional feminist mean to you?
BRT: For me, feminism is about building a future that’s free from sexist oppression, but also one that’s free from all other intersecting kinds of oppression - like white supremacy. It’s crucial that we’re including everyone in the goals of our feminism, and centering those who are the most impacted by these forms of oppression. I’m committed to learning and striving for improvement, always.
To keep up with Becca’s sweet treats, be sure to follow her on Instagram!
All photographs used are by A Scott Photography, styled by Olivia Caminiti.
