Intersectional Oppression and Animal Consideration

Sor Juana occupied multiple marginalized positions—woman, intellectual, illegitimate birth, Indigenous heritage claimed and denied. She understood how power operates through overlapping systems of domination. Contemporary scholarship increasingly recognizes that oppressive logic—hierarchical categorization, denial of capacity, instrumentalization for another's benefit—operates across human and animal spheres. The same justifications used to exploit animals (they're less rational, made for our use, can't speak for themselves) echo justifications for colonialism, slavery, and patriarchy. Sor Juana's intersectional awareness, though she wouldn't use that term, recognized these connections implicitly in her defense of all marginalized knowers. A truly liberatory ethics, informed by Sor Juana's example, cannot isolate human justice from animal justice. It recognizes that systems of domination reinforce each other. Environmental racism disproportionately places industrial animal agriculture near Indigenous and poor communities. Patriarchy devalues both women and animals through logic of domination. Liberation frameworks honoring Sor Juana's legacy must address these interlocking systems simultaneously.