Wait! We're Actually Supposed to LEARN from this Book?

In a nine month span, I have probably read more books than I have read in my entire life. All this is due to the Pi House. These are the titles I can remember: If You Come Softly, E=MC^2, Cosmos (AHHHH... never again), Seven Habits for Highly Effective Teens, The World Without Us, The Grapes of Wrath, Inherit The Wind, Fieldnotes From A Catastrophe, Countless pieces by Edgar Allan Poe, Whale Rider, and more recently we are reading The House of the Spirits. Needless to say, when I signed up for honors courses I wasn't expecting so much reading. I am not the best reader, I must admit. Not that I have a hard time reading, or that I completely hate it, I just have a harder time comprehending things; especially when I never really wanted to read the text in the first place. The more recent book, The House of the Spirits is more unnecessary than pretty much every other book we have been forced to read. I, being a girl, cannot stomach all of the "made for mature audiences" parts in the book. I imagine that it might not be so upsetting for the male members of the Pi House. The way that women are referred to in this book is not something I am used to. I grew up in a time when women have all the rights, if not more, than men have. In this book, set in the last century, women are just seen as a waste of space. It seems like every other page depicts the people of the town beating their wives, silencing them, or flat out mmm... how do I put this nicely... getting their way with them (you all should know what that means). Honestly, it is largely disturbing to me. The worst part is, my teacher justifies his literary pick by saying "we should learn something from it." Unless the message is for us women to fear men, I think I should have taken a rain check from this book.