The responsibility to advocate for those whose voices have been systematically excluded or rendered inaudible.
Sor Juana wrote passionately about the silencing of women, those without power, those whose voices were deemed inappropriate or dangerous. Animals are perhaps the most systematically silenced beings: literally unable to speak in human language, their suffering is ignored and their interests dismissed. This concept establishes an ethical responsibility: those with voice and platform bear some obligation to articulate the interests of the voiceless. Animal advocacy is not presumptuous—it is necessary. Just as Sor Juana spoke against injustices affecting women who couldn't legally or safely speak for themselves, we can practice solidarity with animals through advocacy grounded in knowledge of their actual nature and needs. This is not imposing our values on them but rather translating their interests—survival, freedom from suffering, expressions of nature—into language and action within human systems that have power over them.
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