Gender as a Contested Knowledge Domain

Sor Juana insisted that all domains of human experience merit serious intellectual inquiry. Viewing gender as a contested knowledge domain means treating cisgender identity as something worth studying: its history, its assumptions, its variations, and its social functions. This concept refuses the idea that cisgender identity is self-evident or requires no explanation. It draws from Sor Juana's resistance to dismissing women's intellectual capabilities and applies that same skepticism to the assumption that cisgender identity needs no justification or examination. By treating gender as knowledge, cisgender individuals can engage with scholarship, theory, and philosophical inquiry that deepens their self-understanding and exposes the constructed nature of all gender categories.