Intersectional Oppression: Gender, Class, and Species

Sor Juana inhabited multiple marginalized positions simultaneously: woman, illegitimate, poor-born intellectual. Her work reveals how oppression systems reinforce each other—dismissing her gender intellect while exploiting her labor. Animals inhabit this intersectional reality acutely: factory farm workers are disproportionately poor and immigrant; animal testing deliberately uses creatures without voice or rights; exotic pet trades exploit both trafficking victims and animals. This concept maps how the logic dominating women—that their bodies exist for others' use—extends to animals universally. Sor Juana's refusal to accept single-axis oppression models informs a intersectional animal ethics recognizing that justice requires addressing how species, gender, race, and class oppressions reinforce each other. Dismantling any requires dismantling all; liberation movements must be interconnected or incomplete.