Intersectional Oppression and Animal Exploitation

Sor Juana lived at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities—woman, mixed-race, intellectual outsider—and analyzed how systems of oppression interconnect. This intersectional lens reveals that animal exploitation is not separate from human injustices but fundamentally entangled. Industrial animal agriculture disproportionately exploits workers of color and poor communities. The same colonial logic that justified enslaving humans justified treating animals as property. Patriarchal domination of nature mirrors domination of women. By recognizing these connections, we understand that animal liberation is not a separate cause but integral to broader justice movements. Sor Juana's insistence on examining power structures across domains applies here: we cannot achieve justice for some while ignoring others' oppression. This concept calls for animal ethics that explicitly names how speciesism reinforces and is reinforced by racism, sexism, and classism. Sor Juana's model of intellectual integrity demands we see these connections clearly and refuse frameworks that liberate one group at the expense of another.