The Right to Visibility and Naming

Sor Juana's published works, her public defenses, her refusal to disappear—these represented a claim to visibility and naming in a world that preferred women silent and unattributed. She signed her name, published under her name, and fought for textual and intellectual recognition. Hijra and kothi communities have historically faced forced invisibility through colonial criminalization (Section 377), medical erasure, and family rejection. Contemporary movements assert visibility through activism, public testimony, legal challenges, and cultural production. Naming oneself—choosing a hijra name, claiming a gender identity in public, asserting one's role in ritual or community—becomes an act of resistance and reclamation. This concept recognizes that visibility is not vanity but a precondition for justice: unseen people cannot claim rights; unnamed people cannot testify to their own existence. Sor Juana's insistence on her authored and visible presence models how marginalized people assert their claim to social and intellectual recognition.