Intersectionality of Oppression Systems

Sor Juana inhabited multiple marginalized positions—as a woman, indigenous person, and intellectual outsider—and her work reveals how different oppression systems reinforce one another. Contemporary intersectional analysis shows that animal exploitation, patriarchy, colonialism, and environmental destruction are interconnected systems. Those societies that most violently dominate women often also most brutally treat animals; colonial powers justified both human and animal domination through claims of civilizational superiority. Sor Juana's tradition teaches that we cannot fully address injustice by focusing on single categories in isolation. Animal ethics must recognize how factory farming disproportionately impacts working-class communities and communities of color, how patriarchal systems justify both women's and animals' treatment as consumable resources, how indigenous peoples' relationships with animals differ from extractive colonial models. This intersectional approach prevents moral consideration from becoming a luxury good accessible only to the privileged. It insists that genuine justice requires transforming the entire system of oppression, not merely carving out exceptions for particular groups.