Feminists whose only anti-'privilege' is their sex?

No not you OP! People who use "X feminist" as insults.

One of the things that increases empathy is feeling you have common experience with another person or group. So if person X thinks, 'I experience multiple disadvantages and, although their disadvantages are different, person Y experiences multiple disadvantages just like I do' then they are more likely to feel empathy for person Y.

If person Z thinks, 'even though our lives are really similar in every other way, my daughter person Y is a lesbian and as a straight person I can't possibly understand their experiences,' then they are far less likely to feel empathy.

So it isn't the multiple disadvantages that create the empathy, it is taking the stance that you have common experience with other disadvantaged people - i.e. that ideology that fell out of favour - solidarity.

Because if you are the group lying in manure at the bottom of the heap and you can't / haven't got anyone with any power on your side, then you aren't going anywhere, are you. Short of a revolution. Which can happen, obviously

On no evidence whatsoever I'd say possibly, but actually, not sure at all

Thing is you don't know what people's life experiences are do you? Past the things you can see (colour / sex / disability when visible) you have no idea what people's experiences are.

It would be interesting I guess, to take "empathetic" people and do a questionnaire about life experiences, and non empathetic ones. A person who appears very privileged may have suffered a lot as a child, or have mental health issues, or be a carer, or anything.

Then, upbringing, what the prevailing beliefs are in the society you live.

Then, religion I guess, some people take the really good, or the really bad, interpretations and run with them. Some religious people do spend all their time trying to help others. Whether they are empathetic or just following their god, I don't know, probably varies. Socialisation - women are socialised to be more empathetic than men. Does this make a difference?

At heart I think all of this is a stick to beat women who are apparently privileged but who are trying to do the right thing. Is it better to have people with privilege (money, power, authority) on your side than not? I would say yes, and with an aim to open up that power to groups who have been previously denied it. Men to women, white people to non white, straight to gay and so on and so forth.

I thought what Beyondthewall was asking was if, for example, you were a black straight woman, would you have more empathy for a white lesbian woman than a white straight woman would?

Does having multiple traits that society creates disadvantages around make you have more empathy for people who are experiencing different disadvantages to you?

If someone uses "tumblr feminist" as an insult, I would assume they meant that you are a feminist who doesn't take any action or speak out in real life or do anything that would ever inconvenience you, you just post pictures on tumblr and think that's a big enough contribution.

I'm not sure that privilege = lacking in empathy, always, but there is probably something there. Like not all wealthy people are tories, but actually, probably a lot of them are.

It's to do with experience isn't it? It is hard to understand things from another person's perspective, combined with defensiveness if for this particular thing, actually you are part of the problem, which is hard to swallow.

I don't think an assumption that eg a white feminist won't care about black women / racism is fair, I do however think that a white feminist won't really understand, the same as men don't really understand what feminists are talking about and non disabled people don't understand what disabled people are talking about because they haven't been there.

But yes I do think it is hard often to even notice bad things going on if they don't directly affect you and yours. Whether this makes them "bad people" or not, depends on how they react when the bad things are pointed out I guess.

My personal feeling is that to answer that question you have to look at people you know in real life, not strangers on the Internet. There is something about the Internet that reduces empathy.

I actually don't think I know anyone well in real life who isn't experiencing multiple disadvantages.

Sorry, I mean that on average Tumblr users are more likely to be wealthier and western than say, FB or Twitter, not that Tumblr as a company is wealthier. Obviously it is tiny compared to FB and Twitter.

I may be misunderstanding what you are saying.

Tumblr feminists are the people who stereotypically accuse other people of being white feminists, having straight or cis privilege etc.

I would say that people on Tumblr would claim to be a combination of female, young, trans*, queer, be fat, have physical or mental health problems and be well educated more than you would expect to see in the general population.

I don't think Tumblr skews particularly white, but it does skew Western (particularly US) and is somewhat wealthier compared to other social media sites. The reason for that is probably technological - Tumblr does not function well on smart phones. Many relatively poorer people globally access social media via smart phones but do not have access to a computer.

Tumblr feminist means something similar to social justice warrior. It is not the same kind of insult as white feminist.

I'm not sure about a correlation between privilege and empathy. TBH some of the most bigoted people I know are not exactly privileged at all.

On the other hand practicing empathy and actually 'getting' others are also not necessarily the same thing. My then 17-year-old sister took a holiday job in a factory and did her absolute best to help the women there fight for better conditions - except that they were much more interested in handbags and their boyfriends than my sister's revolutionary aspirations. From her POV she was putting herself in their shoes. They simply wanted nicer shoes without all the politics talk of some teenage MC revolutionary.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this can be very complex indeed and that there is arguably no easy 'if A then B' type of formula.