The Politics of Visibility and Invisibility

Sor Juana's genius included making visible what dominant culture had rendered invisible—the intellectual work of women, the injustice of exclusion. For cisgender identity examined, this means bringing visibility to something usually taken for granted. Cisgender identity often functions as the unmarked category, the norm against which others are measured as different or deviant. This invisibility prevents cisgender individuals from recognizing their own identity as constructed and political. By making cisgender identity visible—examining its history, its assumptions, its maintenance through social practices—individuals can recognize their participation in gender systems. This concept draws from Sor Juana's larger project of insisting that what is rendered invisible or natural is often the most culturally constructed. Making cisgender identity visible is an act of intellectual and political honesty.