Reading about the femenist ethnography article reminded me of Margaret Sanger. Although Sanger was a woman, she still held racist views and bigoted ideologies when it came to her research. During her research in Puerto Rico, Sanger was responsible for many unconsented experiments and sterilization in regards to low-income women on the island. She believed in selective breeding and revealed how feminist identity offers no automatic protection against racist and colonial ideology. She was a woman advocating for reproductive autonomy while simultaneously denying it to women she deemed less worthy of reproduction.

What makes this relevant to feminist ethnography specifically is the question of positionality and power. Sanger approached Puerto Rican women from above, a white American researcher with institutional backing and ideological certainty. The reflexivity that the chapter argues is central to ethical feminist research was entirely absent. She looked at those women and saw a problem to be solved rather than people whose experiences and autonomy deserved centering. It’s a reminder that being a femenist isn’t exclusive to other social issues, it means little without an honest reckoning with race, class, and whose humanity is actually being protected.