The right to claim intellectual authority regardless of gender assignment at birth, challenging systems that deny women's scholarship and thought.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz fought for intellectual recognition despite being assigned female at birth in a male-dominated Catholic hierarchy. This concept examines how cisgender identity can become a barrier to intellectual authority—how societies systematically question women's competence while granting men unexamined credibility. For those assigned female, reclaiming intellectual authority means recognizing that gender assignment is not destiny, nor does it determine one's capacity for thought. This framework helps explore how cisgender men can interrogate unearned authority while women can demand spaces for their ideas. Understanding this tension illuminates how identity categories are weaponized to control who gets to speak and be heard.
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