The Tyranny of Imposed Purpose

Women in Sor Juana's era faced rigid prescriptions: marriage, motherhood, domestic silence. She refused this imposed purpose, insisting on the freedom to define her own path through intellectual work. This concept identifies a specific form of oppression that property-focused libertarianism sometimes overlooks: the coercive assignment of life roles without consent. True libertarian justice requires not only protecting property and trade but also defending the right to self-determination in vocation, identity, and purpose. When society—through law, custom, or institutional power—forces individuals into roles chosen for them rather than by them, it violates the fundamental freedom underlying all property rights: the right to direct one's own life.