Most women and experienced men will agree that the vast majority of women are bitches. If you were wired to be an amazingly convoluted contradictory bundle of rapidly changing emotions you'd be pretty weird too. That said, most women, once you actually get to know them and they get to know you and they open up to you instead of being defensive are pretty cool. You probably get the impression they hate you because most women I think do have a sort of defensive net up a lot of times. If you were being bombarded by creepy and disgusting advances by guys everyday and were naturally such an emotional being you'd probably put one up too. Once they get to know you and find you aren't a creep they will be quite nice. Of course, all women are different, some may not like the kind of guy you are and others will. In fact I think the common rejection rate is around 80% for most any dude. Others will inevitably dig you and you will find it easy to establish a friendship with them. Regardless, there is always that initial phase of uneasiness when neither person is sure whether the other is someone they want anything to do with (usually this is more strongly felt by the female, largely because males are the one supposed to do the initiation of social contact). You have to face this period of uneasiness in order to get anywhere. Rejection during this phase is very normal and shouldnt deter you in any way.
I am not very good with non verbal ques like smiling either and so often chicks think im a jerk at first. However once I can get a girl talking to me for awhile I can get them to see that im not and actually really sensitive.
Once you do have a friend that is a girl you just have to keep in mind that when they inevitably freak out on or at you for some bizzare reason likely having to do with their emotions, that you cant be as sensitive to (i.e. offended by) their behavior as you would be with your guy friends. You just have to be accepting and supporting during the freak out. Fighting back is going to get you nowhere but deeper into the shit pile. Its really not that hard once you accept that it isn't going to have to do with anything you did (a lot of the time at least). It actually can increase your bond of friendship once you realize all the girl wants from you is unwavering positive support you just do that and she is appreciative usually and you feel good because you were able to help 'fix a problem'.
These are my experiences at least. Of course every person, male or female, has their unique quirks.