What is "agency"?

“Women must have agency over their own bodies” is shows in a banner held by three women in the illustration. The women’s hair is created with blob collaged bits of watercolor paper. Below, the text says, “Agreed, absolutely, a million times YES! Except…I have trouble with this phrase.”

Text says, “Why? It’s the term “agency” used in this context. Even though “agency” in philosophy (and in the general understanding) is the ability to act independently, with FREE WILL, it throws me off that the same word has a different meaning in law. Illustration shows some collaged bits of watercolor paper and the words “free will.”

The text at the top of the page says, “What does agency mean? The legal concept of ‘agency’ is where one person is given the power to act on behalf of another.” The illustration shows two blob characters, a red and an orange one. The red is labeled “principal, person with power” and is saying “please do things for me.” The principal is giving another set of collaged bits to the orange blob, the “Agent, the person who can act for another.” The Agent says, “yes, ma’am.” The thing being given from the principal to the agent is labeled as “power on loan” and it is pink.

The text says “the agent, the employee, the sports rep, the executive agency ACTS FOR (in place of) the principal, the employer, the athlete, the executive branch of government. The text is lined up so that you can reach this sentence in many ways. Below it says “these are all forms of agency.” Above we see some repeating patterns from the prior illustration, some orange, red, and pink collaged bits of paper.

The text says, “In law, agents do not act for themselves. The power they use is loaned to them, it’s not theirs, and it can be taken away. Below is a text bubble saying “Don’t get too comfortable! It’s on loan only!” The illustration shows an orange character holding up the pink blobs, thinking “But it’s so appealing!”

The text says, “The legal understanding of ‘agency’ is exactly the opposite of the philosophical meaning, the way we use it in our daily lives. The illustration shows little collaged bits of paper that we’ve seen in prior illustrations. On the left is a pink set of blobs labeled “power on loan,” then the word “vs.” then yellow and blue collaged shapes circling around the words “free will.”

Text says “are you starting to see why this term makes me uncomfortable in the context of women having full control over their bodies?” Illustration shows a woman with red hair holding the pink blobby shape that represents power on loan. She is saying, “ehhhhhhhh?”

Text says, “Considering that th law is used as a tool for controlling women’s bodies, I can’t help but see the term ‘agency’ in its legal definition. I can’t help but cringe at how unfit it feels to argue for ‘agency’ in light of laws that encroach upon us, when, in law, ‘agency’ is just a form of BORROWED power, not inherent to the person using it.

Text says, “I suppose the realms of law and philosophy aren’t about to change their respective contradictory definitions of the words, so…let’s just stop using the law to control women’s bodies.” Illustration shows woman looking weirdly at the text and saying, “Mkay? Cool, thanks.”