Fellow feminists and fantasy readers: how did you get past the beginning of Eye of the World?

And does the rest of Wheel of Time lay off the sexism at all? I’ve tried to read Eye a few times now, years apart with each attempt, and every time it makes me feel like banging my head against a wall. I just hate it when authors write all women the same way, and this way is particularly awful: the heroines bond immediately, speak contemptuously of all men, and are portrayed as bitchy rather than powerful. The men uniformly regard women as incomprehensible. It makes all the characters difficult to identify with. And I haven’t even gotten to any of Jordan’s “pillow friends” passages, but buddies who have read the series tell me he is somewhat obsessed with the idea and brings it up a lot.

I have already been convinced by other readers that the story is well worth pushing through the sexist writing – it’s just that I’ve found myself unable to do it so far. I’m ready to give up and read the plot summary of the first book at least on Wiki. So this is my last-ditch effort – will you guys tell me about how you managed to make it past the first hundred pages? Maybe your stories would give me the heart to try again.