Coercion Masked as Protection

Sor Juana's antagonists used paternalistic language: they restricted her intellectual pursuits for her own good, claimed women's exclusion from public life protected their virtue, and insisted limitations on her writing preserved religious and social order. She recognized this as coercion disguised as care—one of the most insidious forms of injustice. When power restricts freedom in the name of protection, it removes the person's agency to make their own choices and judge their own good. Sor Juana argued that true protection means respect and freedom, not constraint. The Periagoge framework identifies this pattern across civilizations: slavery was rationalized as protection; restrictions on women were framed as care; colonialism claimed to civilize and improve. Genuine fairness, by contrast, trusts people to make their own decisions about their lives. This concept illuminates how language can obscure injustice and why fairness requires distinguishing between genuine care (which respects autonomy) and paternalistic control (which removes it). Understanding this distinction is crucial for modern fairness: it applies to regulations, institutional policies, and cultural narratives that claim benevolent intent while limiting freedom.