>>76986253I remember going over "guess who's coming to dinner" in film class. My teacher felt the character of John was made a little too perfect to highlight the racial issue at play there, in that if he and Joanna were the same race no sane person would object to them getting married. He's the sort of person most parents would hope their daughters would end up with...but he's not the right race.
And I feel like Guess Who's Coming To Dinner does also deserve some credit in that Joanna's father has his objections to the marriage but the main thing is that he's afraid of the prejudice his daughter and prospective son-in-law will face more than any dislike he has for John himself.
It can be a tough balancing act, I agree. Particularly since certain groups don't show up much in media at the moment, their depiction is scrutinized a LOT more heavily than a commonly-observed group's depiction. It can make representation in a creative work a minefield; sidestepping the issue is gutless, and you'll get called on it, negatively depicting a member of a minority will piss some people off, and you'll get called on it, showing positive discrimination towards a minority will piss some people off, and you'll get called on it, including minorities at all will piss some people off, and you'll get called on it.
Overall, the only answer I've figured out is to depict a broader range of people in hopes morons will figure out your female antagonist does not reflect your views on women in general when there's these women over here that show a different perspective, and so on.
That and learning some people will get pissed off no matter what you fucking do, so do what you think is right, consider any criticism you receive for doing so, and decide for yourself if it's valid and something you should reflect on going forward or bullcrap you can ignore.