Intersectional Constraint and Strategic Identity

Sor Juana was a woman, an intellectual, a colonial subject, of mixed heritage, and of humble birth in a hierarchical Catholic society. She could not address all injustices simultaneously or openly. Instead, she strategically positioned herself within systems—choosing religious vows, adopting conventional rhetoric when necessary, using indirect argumentation—to preserve space for her intellectual work. This concept, developed explicitly by contemporary feminists, was lived implicitly by Sor Juana. Fairness requires acknowledging that people operate under compounded constraints and that strategic compromise is sometimes rational rather than betrayal. Yet it also requires naming that such constraint exists and is unjust. We cannot expect the multiply-marginalized to simply overcome systems designed to constrain them. Fairness means working to reduce the burden of strategic navigation while recognizing its intelligence and necessity. Sor Juana's example illuminates both the creativity required to survive unjust systems and the reality that such survival is not itself freedom. Justice requires transforming systems, not merely enabling people to navigate them more skillfully. The concept calls us to support those who choose strategic resistance while working toward conditions where such strategy becomes unnecessary.