A feminist cookie is the term for the reward some men seem to be seeking for saying or doing something feminist. (There are equivalents for, eg, white people and being anti-racist or straight people and being antihomophobia.)
Asking someone if they'd want a cookie may be used to mock, more or less gently, such attention seeking. A man congratulating himself on very elementary good treatment of women (for example "I saw a pretty girl, and I didn't yell at her or try and touch her!") . In general feminists consider basic feminist behaviour as essentially a matter of etiquette: it is not a cause for general congratulations and acclaim.
Cookies (or rather, pictures of them) are sometimes also used as gentle rewards for truly difficult allied behaviour, in particular challenging other men about sexism.
External links
- Things You Need To Understand #9 – You Don’t Get A Cookie by the Angry Black Woman: "When a person or group does something to address the biases and imbalances in our culture, whether it be on a grand scale, in their own sphere of influence, or in themselves, this is a good thing. But doing so isn’t cause for celebration, congratulations, or a party. Why? Because it’s basic human decency. And people shouldn’t be over-praised for doing something they should have been doing in the first place. That leads to them doing the right thing for the wrong reasons — personal or professional accolades. i.e.: Cookies."
- Flickr set of real cookies with messages in icing like "meets minimum standards of decent human" and "not a racist"
- Geek Feminism asks for image generator for virtual cookies