The area known as The Waters is unique in that it houses a matriarchal society. Traditionally, many cultures worldwide have been patriarchal—ruled by men—and Bonnie Jo Campbell intentionally reverses this trope by infusing Hermine Zook with a near-omnipotent authority within the context of her family. For example, when Hermine ousts Wild Will from Massasauga Island for the crime of having sex with Prim, his adopted daughter, she takes measures to ensure that the women for whom she is responsible retain agency over their own bodies. From this point, Hermine allows no men to set foot on the island, and this is her way of keeping the island pure and untainted. She insists to Donkey that men (whom she labels “brutes”) would harm the natural world, damaging its plants and waters.

Because the island is forbidden, some of the men of Whiteheart resent Hermine and by extension, reject her healing abilities. Stripped of their power to control these particular women, they are at a loss as to how to exert their masculinity. Many of them turn to guns as a means to control the area of The Waters, which has become the territory of women.