Refusal as Physical Practice

Sor Juana's refusal to perform conventional femininity, to abandon intellectual work, to remain silent, and ultimately her refusal to recant constitute refusal as a sustained practice—not merely a moment but a way of inhabiting her body. Refusal is physical: it involves the body saying no through action, through presence, through what it will and won't do. In contemporary body-as-identity work, refusal practices include declining to modify your body for others' comfort, refusing to perform expected gendered presentations, refusing to justify your physical existence or choices. This framework moves beyond compliance and negotiation toward active non-participation in systems that deny your autonomy. Your body's refusal—to starve itself for beauty standards, to shrink, to apologize, to perform—becomes a primary site of identity formation. Sor Juana teaches that who you are includes fundamentally what and whom you refuse.