I'm a huge fantasy nerd, but I've always battled to reconcile my love for fantasy with my love for progressive viewpoints. The "standard" fantasy world of humans, elves and dwarves has always seemed deeply regressive to me. Fantasy society is one of male domination, racial intolerance and there's usually no sex, let alone homosexuality.

There is however a different viewpoint, elves and dwarves. Dwarven society is portrayed as the ultimate in patriarchy. Dwarven society is male society. It is ruled by kings, totally martial and concerned only with material wealth. Even the women are required to pretend to be men in order to integrate with the society.

Elven society however is post-patriarchy. They are as likely to be ruled by women as by men (if they are ruled at all, rather than being a self organizing collective), male elves are often wizards or bards, female elves are often warriors. Material wealth is held by society rather than by individuals.

Dwarven society is normally shown as failing, where elven society suffers from being "too good for the world".

Does this show a progressive streak even within the most conservative of genre fiction? Does this also explain the internet hostility towards elves and fetishization of dwarves?