“Sitting on a park bench, Eying little girls with bad intent
Snot's running down his nose, Greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes
Hey, Aqualung” — Jethro Tull
By the time they are 40, 99% of Americans have had sex — 95% before marriage. After life-supporting activities — breathing and whatnot — it is our most popular pastime. Most of us, however, especially as we get older, spend most of our time thinking about something else. Not so religious fundamentalists and other perverts.
Take Jess Edwards, a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. During a debate over a bill that would mandate 18 — without exceptions — as the minimum age for marriage in the Granite State, he expressed concern that the measure, SB 359, would increase the rate of abortions for minor girls. In his words:
“… If we continually restrict the freedom of marriage as a legitimate social option, when we do this to people who are a ripe, fertile age and may have a pregnancy and a baby involved, are we not, in fact, making abortion a much more desirable alternative, when marriage might be the right solution for some freedom-loving couples?” (bolding mine)
I do not know Edwards’ age. However, he graduated from Texas Christian University in 1980 — so let’s call him sixty-something. In other words, way too old to be looking at teen girls as “ripe” and “fertile.”
The rest of Edwards’ complaint does nothing to sand the jags off his antediluvian philosophy. How is child marriage an expression of “freedom.” Brides may rarely swear “to obey” anymore (although the odds are Edwards rues its disuse). But I suspect that most women — and men — would not say they were ‘freer’ after marriage.
Do not get me wrong. I am married. And I do not regret one iota I left the freedom of bachelorhood behind. But there is a reason people refer to marriage as “tying the knot.”
If Edwards were legitimately interested in freedom for teenage girls, he would support their right to choose. Reproductive freedom allows girls to pursue academic and economic futures otherwise dimmed by early maternity. Globally, controlling when and how many kids to have is significant in helping millions of women out of poverty.
But logic is the enemy of a patronizing sexist. And you know he is a sexist because he — like all the child-bride fans — never looks at it from a teenage boy’s point of view.
How would Edwards feel if he had a 16-year-old son who announced he was getting married to a 42-year-old woman because he had impregnated her? We will never know because these people never frame the issue that way.
People like Edwards live in a fantasy. When youths marry, Jess may see a Disney bride with her Prince Charming, but the prospects for a teenage union are grim. No one can predict the outcome in an individual case, but as a whole, young brides get divorced at a higher rate than women marrying older.
Anyone doubting that statistic should then explain why the Bible Belt, which tends to have young brides, also sees high divorce rates. It is a pattern repeated in the Mountain States.
Most civilized countries have established a person's majority — or the age at which we believe they are old enough to make adult decisions — at 18. It is the age at which a newly-minted adult can buy a legal drink as they enlist in the military.
New Hampshire, like the rest of the US, does not think its youth are mature enough for alcohol until they are 21. But Edwards believes they are mature enough to get married at 16. Where is the logic? (Rhetorical question.)