2012-03-19

On marrying fourteen-year-olds

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So I just found this table on accident the other day in a 1956 almanac of facts and, believe it or not, it's wildly apropos. Why?

Because in my new project I want to marry off a fourteen-year-old during the 1910s or 1920s but I wasn't 100% sure that was too common at the time, fourteen-year-old marrying and everything, and I don't want the man to be a creep.*

But if a 1956 almanac considers the marrying age to start at fourteen, I should be fine.* Can you even imagine such a stat today? I imagine the equivalent would be eighteen years and over.

Anyway. This will probably be the only time in my life I'm happy fourteen-year-olds are getting married.* We should totally celebrate.*

*Wait. Am I still failing on the noncreepy thing?

3 comments:

  1. In 1956??

    Wow. It isn't strange to me it was once the norm, but it is strange to me that it was the norm so recently. I mean, our parents were alive then--Dad turned 14 less than a decade later. When do you suppose the norm go pushed back to adulthood?

    People were allowed to get married before they were allowed to vote? I know the two are totally unrelated, but it surprises me anyway.

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  2. .

    I know. I wasn't sure about 1910, so 1956 was a surprise.

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