i can’t stand how much this fandom leans into treating nona like a kid. like the fact that she’s analagous to a disabled adult and the people around her treat her like a child because they don’t know how to engage with the idea of a disabled adult is one of the underlying themes of the novel. yeah it’s subtle but it’s introduced very early with nona understanding and being capable of engaging with the idea of having sex, surprising camilla who hadn’t internalized the fact that nona was an autonomous adult with the capability to both understand sex and consent if desired and relevant.
and the theme continues throughout the book–nona continues to have insight and context that is relevant to her as a disabled adult, and is infantilized by well meaning people around her for what she considers relevant and how she expresses it, resulting in a lot of tension and frustration on nona’s part even while she understands the people around her are acting out of compassion and love. imho the fandom taking that and deciding to portray her as a literal child is emblematic of ableist tendencies and an unwillingness to interrogate the concepts that the text itself is interrogating.