Identity as Intellectual Property

Sor Juana's identity was constantly contested: was she a woman first or a thinker? A nun or an intellectual? A Catholic believer or a skeptic? Institutions attempted to fix her identity according to their categories and needs, denying her the freedom to define herself. This concept treats identity as intellectual property—you own the narrative about who you are. In Libertarian justice, allowing institutions to unilaterally determine your identity becomes a seizure of selfhood. You possess property rights over your own story: how you present yourself, what you claim about your nature, how you position yourself in the world. Institutional categorization—especially when it overrides self-definition—violates this property right. Sor Juana's struggle insists on the freedom to be complex, to refuse simplification, to claim multiple identities, and to revise self-understanding. This right protects individuals from having their essence colonized, their story appropriated, or their nature dictated by external authorities.