The Right to Refuse Enforced Identity

Sor Juana refused simple categorization: she was woman but intellectual; nun but writer; colonial subject but cosmopolitan thinker. Institutions wanted to fix her identity in ways that would limit her freedom and claims. In libertarian justice, the right to self-definition is foundational. When authorities impose identity categories—defining you by gender, caste, nationality, or role—they attempt to own and control your person. Sor Juana's insistence on complexity, contradiction, and self-authored identity was libertarian resistance. This concept protects the right to refuse enforced identity, to claim multiple or evolving identities, and to resist reduction to institutional categories. True property rights in oneself require this freedom. If you cannot define who you are, your other property rights become conditional on authorities' permission. Libertarian justice must protect the right to self-creation and self-definition as prerequisite to all other freedoms. Identity must be self-authored, not imposed—this is the deepest property right.