made the drow matriarchy into a mirror image / photo negative of a patriarchy.
I don't know if any of the Forgotten Realms authors have really exploited this potential in the lore but it wouldn't be difficult to write a feminist novel using the drow -- want to convince some dude who doesn't understand what all this fuss about patriarchy is about? Write a novel about what it's like to grow up as a a dude in drow society.
Read R.A. Salvatore's books. He wrote extensively about drow society and he wrote a book about what it's like to grow up in drow society. It's called the Darkelf trilogy.
Also it's ridicolous to say that drow matriarchy is a negative photocopy of real life patriarchy, because IRL, men actually love women, while drow women fucking hate everything and everyone who is not them. The religious aspect is even more obvious. IRL, religion is all about cohesion, social values and community, while in a drow matriarchy it's senseless fanaticism, violence, and a pointless struggle for power and one-upwomanship only to appease an unappeasable lolrandom goddess, who will reward you by randomly abandoning you just to see if you can get out of the mess she encouraged you to make.
