Children are taught at a certain stage in their life that there are starving kids in Africa, and that they mustn't feel too much empathy for people who they don't know. If a kid gets depressed over conditions in foreign countries, or develops climate change anxiety, or refuses to eat meat, they aren't encouraged. They're either sent to a mental health professional to have their empathy recalibrated, or the adults just hope their empathy blunts over time on its own.
Why are you assuming that the female relative is a "need" in order to empathize and not just a way to feel closer to the problem?
I think it's fair that if you have deep connections with someone, their problems become your problems. It doesn't mean you wouldn't care about that if you didn't have that connection.
normalize this type of stuff as basic human decency
When human communities were smaller, there was the idea that you'd "run out of town" people who broke the social contract - if you lived in a small town and were known as a cheat or a thief it was more likely that people would just stop dealing with you than having police show up. It's hard to stay in a place if no-one will work with you, socialise with you or sell you stuff, so you'd typically move to another town and hopefully learn your lesson.
This is obviously a double edged sword; it's just as easy to end up excluded from society through no fault of your own, but there is definitely something to learn from this. You don't owe space - physical or virtual - to people who aren't going to use that space considerately. Society at large is too big to deal with problematic people this way anymore, but in your social circles or smaller groups you can absolutely tell people that if they aren't going to play by the groups rules then they don't get to play at all.
They agreed to track those boys relentlessly, attend the same colleges, go to work for the same companies, join the same gyms, and badmouth them to every woman they came in contact with for the rest of their lives. The plan was all set until Rhonda frowned. "What's wrong?" asked Kelly. The girls all clustered around. "Well," said Rhonda, "I was just thinking... wouldn't murder be simpler?"
But at that moment one of the other girls, Jaimie, piped up. "Hold up. Do we even need to do anything?", confusion plain on her face.
Rhonda thought for a moment, and replied "What do you mean?"
"It's just that any guy that would make fun of her would be trash to begin with, right?" Jaimie reasoned.
"Yes?" Rhinda replied, seeing where this was going.
"So, who would even like them as a friend?"
"Yeah, that makes sense!" One of the others said.
"But they do *still* have friends." Rhonda put in. "Nobody's *actually* friendless, right?"
"Yeah, I guess. But wouldn't their friends also be trash?" Jaimie questioned.
"Yes, probably." Rhonda responded, not liking where this was going at all.
"So, they would probably only date trash girls, but not even a trash girl wants a trash boyfriend."
"Uh-huh." Cam Rhonda's response, non-plussed. "But, what about wife beaters? They are trash, and they can still get girlfriends."
This continued for a couple of days. In the end, the problem didn't show itself, because even dickheads cave to peer pressure and social norms in high school. It did come very close to happening when a freshmen misgendered the girl, but that had more to do with the restrictive policies the school has with regards to gender identity, and was swiftly resolved when the combined pressure of an entire cheersquads warning glares crashed down upon the hapless boy.