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I once saw a gif on Reddit of a little girl being forcibly kissed by a little boy (both about 6), and she shoved him off and he looked sad. The entire thousands of comments focused on the little boys first rejection. No one even noticed it was the little girl's first sexual assault. She even wiped the kiss off, reminiscent of victims cleaning themselves after assaults.

When I pointed this out, people were angry. How dare I suggest that little boy is a monster. But I wasn't. I was entirely focused on the little girl's experience and I wasn't advocating for anything relating to the boy. In fact, I think an appropriate "punishment" would be to explain to him to not touch people without asking etc. And that's it.

But men were so unable to extend empathy to a girl, to a woman, that they literally couldn't absorb this information or perspective take as her. This was like 3 years ago. It was astonishing. No, men do NOT empathize with women. Men empathize with themselves as an idealized version of who they would be as a woman - that's projection by definition and is entirely how they feel entitled to control women and objectify them.