The OED has the definition of “agency” I’m interested in listed first:
The faculty of an agent or of acting; active working or operation; action, activity.
In typical OED style, I can’t fucking understand that. God bless you, Random House (def. 10):
a means of exerting power or influence; instrumentality
I did not know this definition of “agency” until just a year and a half ago, when I took a class called Advanced Sociological Theory. The kids in this class said “agency” a lot, and I spent weeks trying to fully wrap my head around it (they try not to talk about agency in economics, which was my major). If I have “agency” it means I have the ability to act, or to determine an outcome. So, in a way, a prisoner has less “agency” than a free man, although “agency” is typically used more for mental constructs than physical ones. What I love about it is that I learned it so late in life, and it seemed like such a difficult concept at the time, but once I wrapped my head around it, I found it tremendously useful. Now I say it way too much and at wholly inappropriate times.
There is an intrinsic moral agency in all human beings, except ugly people, who are automatically bad people.
Sorry, babe. I just don’t have the agency to sex you up tonight, what with my penis being cut off and fertilizing the rhododendrons and all.
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