Identity Autonomy and the Right to Self-Definition

Sor Juana occupied multiple, sometimes contradictory identities: nun, intellectual, woman, servant of the church, critic of authority. She resisted singular categorization that would limit her claims or constrain her freedom. Libertarian justice protects identity autonomy—the right to construct, revise, and assert one's identity rather than accepting assigned categories. Systems of injustice often work by fixing identity: 'woman,' 'colonial subject,' 'inferior intellect'—and then denying rights based on that fixed category. Sor Juana's fluid self-presentation and her assertion of intellectual equality despite gender challenged these categorical prisons. This concept rejects essentialist arguments for differential rights based on birth status, gender, race, or assigned role. Applied today, it supports self-identification, gender freedom, and resistance to caste-like systems that sort people into permanent hierarchies based on origin rather than choice and ability.