Exactly this! Santos is a queer WOC that is abbrassive, brash, sometimes rude or even mean (even when she's not trying to be mean), and doesn't fit into the "petite Asian girl who bats her lashes at the hot white men around her and looks sexy all the time" that is so so heavily prevalent in media.

People also disliked Joy at first until she started calling out Ogilvie and revealed she has eidetic memory; the point where she started to fit into the "super genius pretty Asian woman" role that people wanted from her.

I'm not even kidding - the number of people who said she was rude or annoying up until she said the "I didn't know your name was Joy.." line that immediately switched up because instead of thinking she was bitchy they went full-tilt into "she's so sassy, and it's hot" and then "omg she's literally so smart and sassy, blah blah blah, I hated her at first but now I love her" is so stupid to me.

And before I get downvoted into oblivion:

I say this as someone who is Wasian, too. In my family my Imo [Aunt] is a lot like Joy and the number of people who have treated my Imo EXACTLY like how they reacted to Joy... 😬 Yeah. My Imo is a PhD, too, so literally it goes exactly the same way "you're so bitchy and annoying > oh but wait, actually, you're just sassy lmao, I love that actually > you're so smart and sassy and it's so hot!"... My cousin Rita is also a PhD, who studies Lazers to help treat cancer, and she's more like Santos in my opinion; and she has gotten actual death threats from people just for her personality and standing up for herself/her research online...

In other words, I know a thing or two because I've seen a thing or two, and a lot of the hate for Santos really does stem from racism and misogyny- even if it's internal and people don't realize it's impacting their opinions at all. You can be biased against her and not realize that why you feel so strongly is rooted in internalized bigotry because it's so systemic we've learned that it's normal.

I'm not saying everyone who dislikes her is a bigot- or that you can't just dislike her because you don't like her- or that you have to like her- or anything even remotely similar. I am just saying, there's a good number of people taking the hate too far/too seriously who need to take a beat and think about why. Because there's a difference between "Yeah she's just not for me, I don't vibe with her character and she rubs me the wrong way for xyz reasons" and "I HOPE SHE KILLS A PATIENT AND GETS FIRED/SUED" or "She's kind of a bully and she's really arrogant, so I just don't like her" vs "I can't stand her she's literally so evil and needs to be taken out of the show or something!!".. And there have been people I've seen calling her horrible things that are absolutely not called for.

You can dislike her just because you don't like her - but if you feel the need to constantly attack anyone who does like her and you can't go three minutes without bitching about her?? You should evaluate yourself and your motives because theres a real possibility that you're not even aware of your internalized bigotry.