Intersectional Harm and Nested Accountability

Sor Juana lived at the intersection of gender oppression, class restriction, and intellectual suppression; her single actions were always harmed by multiple systems. Punitive justice often treats harm atomistically—one crime, one perpetrator, one sentence. Restorative approaches informed by intersectionality must address how harm is compounded through nested systems of oppression. A survivor might be harmed not only by an individual perpetrator but by institutional indifference, cultural victim-blaming, and structural inequalities that enabled the abuse and limit their healing. Accountability must therefore be nested: individual accountability interlocked with institutional reform, which requires community transformation, which demands policy change. This complexity cannot be flattened into simple apology and forgiveness. Instead, Sor Juana's example shows how genuine justice requires addressing interconnected harms: the intellectual suppression that enabled gendered violence, the religious authority that silenced resistance, the colonial structures that limited all agency. Restorative work must be systemically honest.