Refusal as a Practice of Dignity

Sor Juana ultimately refused to continue her intellectual work under institutional coercion, renouncing her library and ceasing her writing—a refusal that cost her everything but preserved her refusal to be remade in the church's image. For people in poverty, refusal is an essential practice of dignity: the refusal to accept humiliation, to be remade by systems of control, to perform gratitude for basic survival, or to erase aspects of identity to be acceptable. Refusal can take many forms: refusing unpaid or exploitative labor, refusing to assimilate completely to dominant culture, refusing to internalize shame about one's poverty, refusing to perform deference or invisibility. Refusal is often read as self-destructive or irrational by those with power, but it operates as a crucial boundary-setting practice for those without power. It says: there are limits to what can be purchased or taken from me. My dignity is not for sale. This concept validates refusal not as a path to material improvement but as essential to maintaining a self worth protecting. For identity work, refusal means claiming the right to say no, even when consequences are severe, because some things cannot be sacrificed without losing oneself.