The Right to Redefine Your Own Identity

Sor Juana deliberately crafted her self-presentation: religious vows provided cover for intellectual work while she resisted reduction to any single role—not merely nun, poet, theologian, or woman, but all simultaneously on her own terms. She claimed ownership of her identity narrative against external definitions. In libertarian justice, this becomes a property right often overlooked: ownership of one's own representation and the right to resist categorization that denies autonomy. Imposed identity—whether through racism, sexism, caste, or institutional labeling—constitutes a seizure of self-determination. Sor Juana's tradition demands the freedom to define oneself, to hold multiple identities, to evolve one's self-conception, and to reject external names that diminish or distort. This principle protects individuals from being treated as fixed property of state, family, or tradition. True freedom includes the right to author one's own identity, to change it, and to insist on recognition of that self-determined identity.