I touched upon this briefly in my previous post Karma is a Motherfucker; this is Thoroughbred Status. To reach thoroughbred status you have to see and/or experience things that numb your emotions to a certain extent. Doing this will allow you to see women as they really are, rather than a romanticized version. Seeing women as they really are allows you to interact with them as normal human beings rather than as mythical beings. This is a problem that a lot a guys have. No one is all good; we all have bad traits; understanding this allows us not to view women as white or black, but rather gray.
I wouldn't say numb your emotions, rather let go of beliefs that create unrealistic ideas that conflict with reality and create emotions.. But otherwise I agree with you on everything, especially I like your definitin of empathy, same as mine. I don't like when people confuse empathy with sympathy