Speculating beyond the patriarchy

Is it good or bad that most fantasy still takes place in patriarchal societies? Not just fantasy, actually, but a fair amount of science fiction as well. In a world where we’ve tried hard to grow beyond our roots in male-dominated and led societies, we still dream about worlds of oppression.

Of course, in the real world, we haven’t made as much progress as one might hope. Some countries have equal protection laws in place, but many don’t. Even the ones that do have difficulty in implementatio...