Hegemony and Agency

I gave the example of feeling like I desire a skirt and puzzling over whether the desire was merely an operation of hegemony. Choosing to resist hegemonic images of femininity, I refuse to purchase the skirt. As a result, I am left feeling deprived on the one hand and autonomous on the other. My question was whether there can be agency independent of hegemony. Louise Antony suggested there are 2 questions here: whether there can be agency without hegemony, and whether there can be autonomy within hegemony. I may have misunderstood Sally's response, and if I did, I apologize in advance. I believe it was suggested that agency can enter where there are breaks in hegemony. I am wondering if more can be said about such breaks. What might a break in hegemony consist in? How might one recognize such a departure in order to realize the opportunity to exercise agency?

Compassion?

One person in the audience at the conference asked what philosophy has to offer in terms of nurturing compassion. Given Eastern philosophies, such as Buddhism, that integrate the concept of compassion, I would narrow that question: What does western philosophy have to offer, if anything, in terms of nurturing compassion? Perhaps feminism has some relationship-based models that can be interpreted as nurturing compassion, but do folks think that western philosophy has something else to contribute here? If so, what?