> The presence of social norms does not invalidate the agency of humans or groups of humans in the way a cage does.
I'm not sure how you can say this with such confidence. Surely it depends on what the social norms are and how they are enforced (which could be with a literal cage.)
That's exactly my point. Essentializing about society being a cage that prevents people from being fully human removes all nuance as to which social norms are pro-social and which are anti-social, which norms are suffocating, and which norms actually provide the freedom from fear that people need in order to exist without constant anxiety. It treats all of them the same - as shackles on the "freedom" necessary to be a "full human".
I'm not sure how you can say this with such confidence. Surely it depends on what the social norms are and how they are enforced (which could be with a literal cage.)