The Practice of Rigorous Self-Questioning

Sor Juana's approach to knowledge involved relentless questioning—of sacred texts, of authority figures, of conventional wisdom. She modeled intellectual humility combined with intellectual courage: the willingness to question everything while remaining open to profound complexity. Applied to cisgender identity examination, rigorous self-questioning means interrogating your most basic assumptions about gender. Why do you identify as cisgender? What evidence supports this? How has this identity shaped your opportunities and limitations? What would you lose if you questioned it? What do you gain by not questioning it? This is not therapeutic introspection alone but philosophical investigation. It involves examining how cisgender identity connects to power, privilege, limitation, and meaning-making. Rigorous self-questioning also means accepting that you may not arrive at final answers—that identity remains partially mysterious even to oneself. Sor Juana's own writings reveal a thinker perpetually engaged in inquiry rather than claiming certainty. This concept transforms identity examination into ongoing philosophical practice rather than a project with an endpoint.