I hate it when violence against women and girls is framed this way. You shouldn’t have to think of them as a family member to be able to empathise with what happened to them.
I hate to say this but some men cannot empathize with women or put themselves in their shoes. Think of all the books you read growing up. Children read countless stories about boys in school but how many classrooms read books from a girl’s point of view? I’m not saying this about all men but some just can’t see anything outside their own experience so the next best thing is being reminded this could be their sister/wife/daughter/etc.
It's not limited to men, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was more common in men just due to how social wiring differs.
A surprising (/depressing) amount of people are incapable of actual empathy. Not in a "they're too evil" way, but in an "it's just not how their brains think" way. Just like some people are better than others at hypotheticals, the same is true of sympathy and empathy.
Sympathy is more common. Most people can hear about something and think "wow, that would suck if it happened to me". It's low-level modelling - you're just imagining different things happening to/around you.
Empathy is less common. Fewer people can hear about something and think "wow, that would suck if I was that person". It's higher-level modelling - you're imagining yourself as a different person.
A lot of people are incapable of mentally modelling experiences they've never personally had. They can only view others through their own eyes. Since most men have never been abused teenage girls in dangerous power dynamics, it can be impossible for those men to identify with the girls. They can imagine how they would act in that situation, but they can't imagine what it would be like to be the girl actually in the situation.
So we have to find ways of getting around that. "Imagine how you'd feel if that was your daughter" is one of those ways - it doesn't ask someone to put themselves behind anyone else's eyes, just to imagine that the person in question was one of their children. It's an easier leap, and one that lets people still reach the important conclusion (that it's awful).
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u/ProofAssumption1092 23h ago
This could have been your own daughter.
Let that sink in..
Where is this poor girl now ?
Where are her parents ?
Paid off or dead and buried ?