Intersectional Moral Consideration

Sor Juana's identity as a woman, a colonial subject, and a person of mixed race made her acutely aware of how multiple systems of oppression intersect. She understood that injustice against one group connects to injustice against others. This intersectional perspective illuminates how animal exploitation and human exploitation often target the same communities. Indigenous lands are destroyed for animal agriculture; poor communities suffer disproportionate exposure to factory farming pollution; women and enslaved peoples have historically been compared to animals to justify their subjugation. Moral consideration for animals becomes inseparable from justice for human communities. This concept rejects hierarchies of concern, instead recognizing that liberation movements must address both human and animal suffering. It calls for solidarity across species and across human marginalization, understanding that systems of domination are fundamentally connected and require comprehensive resistance rooted in solidarity rather than hierarchy.