Marginality as Intellectual Advantage

Sor Juana's position as a woman, a colonial subject, and a religious outsider positioned her to see contradictions and injustices invisible to those embedded in hierarchical power. Her marginality was not merely a disadvantage to overcome but a source of intellectual freedom and insight. This concept challenges the assumption that property and power flow naturally to the already-powerful, revealing instead that exclusion from institutional systems can preserve intellectual independence and moral clarity. In libertarian justice terms, marginalized individuals often retain property rights in authentic knowledge and critical analysis that the powerful cannot corrupt. Those pushed to society's edges frequently develop superior understanding of how systems function, where injustices hide, and what alternatives exist. Sor Juana's prolific writings emerged not despite her marginalization but because of it—she was free from the compromises demanded of privileged insiders. This suggests that libertarian justice must actively protect spaces for marginalized knowledge-producers and recognize the distinctive value of outsider perspectives.