Difference between revisions of "Agency"
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Revision as of 00:36, 5 December 2021
Agency is the notion that a person has control over and responsibility for their own actions. Society tends to emphasise the agency of men and deny the agency of women. This is known as hypoagency.
Feminists typically deny the agency of women. The current influence feminists have on western society is resulting in the codification of the denial of women's agency in law.
The UK has recently shifted the onus of proof for sexual offences involving a man and a woman. If a man and a woman have sex and the woman asserts that sex was not consensual then the onus of proof is placed on the man to prove that the sex was consensual.[1]
Similarly in most jurisdictions if a boy and a girl have sex under the age of consent, the boy is held accountable.[2] And this despite the widely held belief that girls mature faster than boys.
Feminism seeks to minimise women's agency so that it can be seen as the saviour of women. Researchers, even feminist researchers, are starting to talk about this more as can be seen from this quote in a recent research paper on child maltreatment (child abuse):
Child maltreatment is a difficult subject for feminists. The reality is that women commit a significant amount of CM However, as Marie Ashe and Naomi Cahn note, feminist theory does not adequately account for this fact. For example, radical feminist theory, which has informed much feminist advocacy around DV, tends to view women as victims, a perspective that ignores women's agency, including the agency of women who abuse children. For cultural feminism, acknowledging the bad mother may pose an existential threat. Cultural feminists see women as different from men, and argue that women's differences need to be promoted and protected to achieve gender equality. What sets women apart, according to cultural feminists, is their ability to care and connect with others, an ability that flows from their experience as mothers. To suggest that some women are bad mothers deprives women of the special status cultural feminists rely on to further women's interests[3]
Exception
If a woman opposes feminism or other ideologies co-opted by feminism, feminists do see that woman as responsible. This is explained by Alison Tieman here.