There is a right way to handle those topics, but it is always so shoehorned into things that you just end up repulsed by it. I think the new Nosferatu movie dealt with some of these themes of imposing men who don’t respect a woman and her autonomy in a way that made sense both to the story, the source material and that fit well with the characters. Hell, take the old animated Hunchback of Notre Dame movie that Disney released in 96. That movie is pretty much the embodiment of social justice, but it is done correctly because it isn’t preachy. It is compassionate and has a soul.

I have to check that movie out; keep meaning to.

Not horror, but I think one of the best and most natural ways that I saw women's issues dealt with was in Mad Men. I mean, I remember my mother talking about how you could not have a bank account or a credit card without husband/father's approval, even into the 70s. Which seems very abstract when she was saying this in the 80s or 90s to me. The show dealt with that kind of thing and so many others and it felt much more natural. It wasn't this sudden halt in the narrative, with an "insert THE MESSAGE here" kind of feel. But if you were paying attention, it definitely made it clear what was happening and why. Same way they dealt with thing like ecological awareness - that scene where they just dump all the trash in a park after a picnic...I remember that kind of attitude among awful people in the 80s and even 90s all the time. Still see it sometimes - I just see people huck trash out of their car even now....but these characters are supposed to be middle America, and the "right" kind of people doing it...

That some of them live rural enough that politics and societal problems feels far away from them and isn’t something they think about in the same way that city people do.

I grew up in a VERY rural area. Probably about 4-to-1 Republican to Democratic voters. And yes, I think it's a very tribal thing. The Republicans there seem to think Democrats are a bunch of snobby smartypants that think they know what's best for everyone and wants to disrupt their lifestyle, and that "the cities" were dangerous and filled with scary POC and libertines, with weird food and strange religions. Or no religion. Near as I could tell, it was not much of a lifestyle? The hobbies mostly seemed to boil down to hunting/fishing and drinking/smoking ditchweed. I have some fond memories, but then, I tend to try to make the best of whatever situation I'm in. I think QOL of was actually quite miserable for most of my peers, and more than a few were deep in denial. But they were on their team: daddy and mommy always voted Republican and they always did these low-paying jobs/gig/seasonal type of work even if it was thankless and in some cases pretty dangerous, so we can expect no better for ourselves and we'll never move out of this place because we have too much family in the area. Death from things like drinking and driving, prison time for various petty crimes was pretty high. I bet anything meth hit the place pretty hard when it was hitting other white rural ares, too, but I mostly lost touch with people that still live there...

That's not to say that some people living in cities don't have really skewed ideas about people in the country. While it really does frustrate me of having the idea that people living in the hinterland actually have an outsized influence on out politics, it's not like they don't have any legitimate concerns. The thing is, it's often that Democratic politicians are probably their most likely option for having those concerns heard...I never understood why even the most backwoods of rednecks don't see right through some of the performative bullshit the Republican hucksters do...donning cowboy hats and boots, firing guns, waving the flag, saluting, talking about "the troops" and so on. It's so cringe. But they eat it up, I just don't get that at all.