this was pretty bad. it was bad enough that even back then you had people pointing out how bad it was. it was so bad that various states passed laws so that it would be against the law, going forward.
the textbook's point is that even though this wasn't common place, it was somewhat taken for granted.
i can kind of understand somethings. like how it was probably far more common back then for people to be married by the ages of 15-18. i can get that. but the case of Johns and Eunice, it was shocking even then. that should tell you something.
I agree. It was certainly more common for child marriages but not that extreme. That guy was definitely a pedo. If you are buying your wife a doll for her wedding present you need to rethink your life choices.
Maybe it’s just unfortunate connotation with the phrasing but “these marriages were taken for granted” sounds like the author is saying that people didn’t appreciate that they could do that back then.
Ok, this may be wrong history but I could have sworn I saw some article a few years ago explaining that this marriage happened because it was the middle of the great depression and her parents couldn’t afford to feed her or something like that.
Makes it worse, imo.
That said, was he a pedo? If sex happened then obviously yes, but I thought this marriage was a charity case more so than a “indulge a pedo who’s interested in our daughter during the depression” situation…
I’m gonna have to go find that article at some point…
Edit: welp, I went looking for it, couldn’t find it, so everything above this line may be bullshit, but based on the age she had her first child at, yeah I’d say that obviously counts as some pedo shit
Apparently this was actually a pretty significant case, as it was publicised at the time and led to the creation of laws setting the minimum age for marriage at 16. Although, wikipedia claims he was 24 rather than 22. I feel like this suggests this wasnt really the norm at the time the way the textbook suggests. en.wikipedia.org/…/Marriage_of_Charlie_Johns_and_…
There are only five sentences of text on that page, with the last one explaining that this sort of marriage was not common at all. Where did you get the idea that the textbook is suggesting that this was the norm?
The second paragraph to the right of the photo talks about how our perception of these things changes with time, and while it seems shocking to us now it would once have been taken for granted. It was a big news story at the time and was not taken for granted.
Edit: I guess my wording was a bit off. I meant to say that it was not within the cultural norms of the time. As worded, it sounds like I’m discussing its frequency rather than its level of acceptance - that’s my bad.
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