The Right to Refuse Imposed Identities

Sor Juana refused to accept prescribed identities for women of her status and illegitimate birth, repeatedly asserting her intellectual equality and right to study despite institutional and social pressure to conform. This concept emphasizes that identity work fundamentally involves negative freedom—the right to say no to identities others demand you embody. Across cultures, this appears as women rejecting assigned domestic roles, colonized peoples refusing imposed racial categories, LGBTQ+ individuals rejecting assigned gender identities, and religious minorities refusing to abandon ancestral practices. The refusal itself becomes identity-constituting: you name yourself by declaring what you will not be. However, refusal carries costs—Sor Juana faced decades of ecclesiastical pressure and ultimately silenced her writing. This concept illuminates the difficult reality that claiming identity through refusal often requires resources, spaces of relative safety, and sometimes heroic persistence. It examines both the necessity of refusal for authentic identity and the structural barriers that make such refusal costly or impossible for those with fewer resources.