Maybe let’s not infantilize the autistic coded character

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Title: untitled
Creator: acecrisis
Date(s): 09 September 2023
Medium: Twitter post
Fandom: Good Omens
Topic: One fanart of Aziraphale from Good Omens,"minor-coding", "Autistic-coding"
External Links: maybe let’s not infantilize the autistic coded character, Archived version on Twitter
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Maybe let’s not infantilize the autistic coded character is the first part of a post to Twitter made by a fan named acecrisis. In the post, she recalls she saw fanart of Aziraphale from Good Omens drawn to be aged-down, with Crowley said to be "looking after" him. She makes a call to action for other fans to be aware of his fanon characterization, which often leans into stereotypes of Autistic people under the guise of representing his "minor-coding."

maybe let’s not infantilize the autistic coded character and let’s not especially make him a literal child and then draw him with his canon romantic interest as an adult “looking after” him like we’re so much smarter than this

(this isn’t bashing anyone who relates to characters and hcs them as age regressors, you do your thing and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise)

full Tweet by acecrisis

The post went viral on Twitter soon after it was posted. As of March 2024, it has 83 comments, 876 retweets, 10,000+ likes and 289,600+ views. Many fans added in quote retweets other characters which are deemed as minor-coded by fandom. Most fans who commented/interacted with the post agreed with acecrisis.

The post also led to the creator of the fanart being harassed. acecrisis clarified that this was not her intention, and that she used the fanart as an example, adding, "been seeing a lot of people infantilizing Aziraphale anyway, which we should not do, he’s a capable being, if you wanna make cute harmless aus then go for it but don’t involve characters who are minors or characters you age down to be minors in stuff like that, that’s just 101[.]"[1]

Characters and Ships Mentioned in Quote Retweets

References/Further Reading