For instance, if we attempt to raise orchids in the Arctic, we would be well advised to appreciate the effects of the frigid culture on the fragile blossoms we want to grow. So it is with heterosexual feminism. Women do not live in a benign or even neutral society. Yet whether or not we call ourselves feminists, we know this caste system exists. All of us, women and men alike, are conditioned to conform to this culture.
Men are trained to be dominators, women to be subordinates.
No one is exempt. Everything we do, think, and feel takes place in this context of male supremacy and climate of woman-hating. To survive in a misogynist environment, a woman must learn how to protect innate female power from a society designed to destroy it. Over the years, from a heterosexual and now lesbian perspective, I have pondered these questions. Possibly, providing a woman has adequate resources and information, and prepares herself appropriately for the relentless hostility of the climate.