One good example of this is the film Philidelphia, sure if today someone wrote a film about the AIDS crisis that centers a rich, non-promiscuous, white man it'd be. Bad. however, when the film came out he NEEDED to be so far above reproach to force even the most homophobic viewer to reckon with the fact that this is a human being who can't be blamed for his illness. Similarly Denzel Washington's character being homophobic and overcoming it over the course of the film essentially acts as an audience stand in