I could go on for a thousand years about the sexualization of 2B being a form of player/observer participation in her adultification (which forms the axis of her narrative in the child-parent friction reading of automata)

But the fan response to 9S is so much...weirder?

On one hand you have the 'shotafication' which is an equal and opposite parallel to the aforementioned 2B narrative. Keeping him 'a child' is the thing harming him, but also something he perpetuates as a means to paint himself more naive and harmless than he is.

See also: 2B hiding behind the prohibition of emotion to hide that she actually is more childish and sensitive than she appears.

On the other hand you have this crowd that S T R O N G L Y dislikes him for varying and often contradictory reasons. I've heard him slapped with just about everything from thirsty simp to white knight, basically any form of toxic masculinity thing that exists.

Whatever the takeaway on this side, its wild how much it justifies exactly the fear he expressed after his time with Adam. He knows he has uncomfortable and maybe even unacceptable feelings inside of him.

But as long as seems nothing but a harmless boy, he can stay with 2B.

Trouble being that growing up requires confronting your own bad opinions and bad behaviors. Hiding under the facade of being a child will not help you grow.

For 9S it's unfortunately a matter of survival too, and when he does finally get to grow up, the price is too high.