Agency is the ability for a person, or agent, to act for themself. A person who is not allowed to act for themself is lacking in agency, or is said to have been denied agency.
In geek circles, women (real and fictional) often lack agency compared to their male counterparts.
Examples[]
- When men speak on behalf of women, they deny them agency. Instead, men should allow women to speak for themselves.
- Dismissing or lowering the value of a work created by a woman with a Denial of Agency attack, implying or directly stating that she is not truly its author.
- Fictional female characters who act at the behest of male characters, without any will of their own, lack agency. Eg: the Buffy Bot in Buffy the Vampire Slayer