30 yr old man marries a 13 yr old girl- then and now

[TxRedMan]

It's hard to ask this question w/o the societal taboo of people thinking you're some version of a pedophile.

It's also hard to answer this question because other than womens suffrage and the onset of industrialism and the changes in culture it brought, there's no distinct period of time where this stopped.

In the grand scheme of things, 150 years is nothing. And, 150 years ago it was common for a man as old as 30 yrs. to wed a woman (girl) as young as 13, sometimes 12, depending on their personal level of maturity.

I'm sure others will elaborate thoroughly, but I find this peculiar.

But, is it peculiar that a man would be thrown in jail (save for the sporadic morman/polygamist comunity in the middle of nowhere) for being with a girl that much younger than him in our day and age, or was it peculiar that this was such a common thing as little as 150 years ago?


It really is a drastic change in the way society views such a thing.


Discuss.

[traz]

150 years ago, slavery was still legal

[fish2plus2]

Was it really normal back then for him to be 30 yrs old? Wouldnt he have to be like 16-18 or something. I understand that they got married young back then, and that divorces werent as common.

[TxRedMan]

yes, it was common.

granted, not as common as say, a 25 yr. old man w/ a 15 yr. old woman, but it still happened.


marriages were often arranged, and in a lot of families when a girl was able to get pregnant/menstruate, she was considered able to marry.

[Scary_Tiger]

Just give it up Tx, no marrying a 12 year old for you.

[Innocent Kitty]

[TxRedMan]

[ QUOTE ]
Just give it up Tx, no marrying a 12 year old for you.

[/ QUOTE ]


Blasted!

[catalyst]

it's called progress.

[kutuz_off]

As I understand, in many muslim countries, 30+13 is not out of the ordinary to this day.

[Tonding]

People just didn't live as long as in our days.
A lot more women died while birthing babies.
So they should be married very young for having the chance to give birth as many times as possible.
You can see this now still in several 3rd world countries.
They just don't have the time to get married late.
When the average age of death is app. 40 you marry at the time you're able getting pregnant.
Several centuries ago women were considered mature when they reached puberty.
Another important point is dowry.
Today, nearly nonexistent in the industrial countries, it was the most common thing just a century ago.
It were always the brides parents who had to pay.

The whole view on this has changed.
The older people got, the bigger the difference in age would be.
You can see it somewhat differently still today.
There are a lot older men marrying young women.
Like 50 year olds getting married to 25 year olds.
But in earlier centuries 50 was considered old as the hills.
So you just substract some years from both genders and there you have the underaged marrying a 30 year old man.