Comments | ontd_political: Child marriage is finally illegal in Virginia

sugartitty in ontd_political

Child marriage is finally illegal in Virginia - and other states may be on their way

Jul 09, 2016 07:18

Bad news if you’d like to marry a child in the state of Virginia - as of this month, children under the age of 16 can no longer get hitched.

In case you thought that child marriage was a relic of bygone eras or an abusive practice that happens in other places, before July 1, 16- and 17-year-olds could marry with parental consent - and children ( Read more... )

virginia, child abuse / csa, *trigger warning: child abuse / csa, marriage, children, law, rape

Comments 4

maynardsong July 10 2016, 13:52:17 UTC

Anyone else notice the age difference for female consent and male consent for New Hampshire? That's such bullshit.
I'm from India, and the minimum age for women (officially) is 18, and for men it's 21. And some guy is gonna be like "but puberty and girls mature before boys" blah blah blah but the fact of the matter is that most 16-year-old boys are biologically capable of siring a child and people would agree that they're not ready to be married. TLDR it's bullshit that men and women don't have the same age of consent for marriage and feeds right into archaic ideas about sex.

ms_mmelissa July 10 2016, 16:13:34 UTC

Wow, I'd never even considered the whole being forced to marry your rapist. Terrifying.

moonshaz July 10 2016, 17:21:00 UTC

God, I had no idea this kind of thing was still legal in the US.

The first thing I thought of was Loretta Lynn's memoir, Coal Miner's Daughter, and the movie that was made from it. She was THIRTEEN when she got married and literally didn't even know what sex WAS. She had absolutely NO idea what the fuck (pun intended) her husband was trying to do to her on their wedding night. Of course, Sissy Spacek was way older than that and looked it, so if you hadn't read the book, it might be pretty easy to miss how young Lynn was at the time just from seeing the movie. Lynn had her first child at 14 and the fourth one at 20 (with 3 others eventually following). (Side note: The oldest daughter had a baby at age 18, making Lynn a grandmother at 34!)

As creepy as it was to read about Lynn's experience, it happened back in the 1940s, and knowing that it STILL happens and is often used to cover up sexual abuse is an order of magnitude more creepy. UGH.

wuvvumsoc July 10 2016, 19:02:19 UTC

I live in Alabama. I have also heard of men marrying the underage girls they raped so they can get off on any statutory rape charges. I have no clue how this is legal.