Week of October 28: Sor Juana: A Narcissist? A Feminist? Both or Neither?

 This week, we had two questions that we talked about in Professor Stark's portion of the class that I found interesting. The questions were if we thought Sor Juana could be considered a feminist and if she could be considered a narcissist. During our discussion, we had many great points come up, one of which included the definition of the words. These definitions play a crucial role as everyone has a different definition and how they view things. I think that Sor Juana was really neither. Yes, she pushed for women to be able to learn but in my eyes, a feminist pushes for everyone to be equal. Her view of men using knowledge for bad, as seen in her letter “The Answer,” skews the thought of her advocating for equal rights. Such as her saying “To such men, I say again, study does harm, because it means putting a sword in the hands of a madman,” it beings to view that she thinks men can only harm with knowledge but that is not always true. I also do not view Juana as a narcissistic because by definition narcissism is when someone does harm to others by puting self interest first. I think that she was doing what she thought best to get be just as equal as men. Sure, you can view that she was doing it just for herself but near the end of the movie we watched she tells her pupils not to let anyone tell them they’re not allowed to question things or learn, that it was just as right for woman to study just as men do.