Timeline for When did age gaps in marriage become looked down upon in America?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
27 events
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| May 31, 2019 at 1:03 | history | edited | MCW♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 31, 2019 at 0:33 | history | edited | 米凯乐 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 29, 2019 at 18:16 | comment | added | David D | The question starts with a rape example and then asserts without references that "most people" consider large age gaps between spouses are disgusting. It reads more like a rant than a question. | |
| May 29, 2019 at 16:45 | comment | added | jamesqf | I think you may be conflating age difference with the delay in typical marriage age (and other adult responsibilities). A century or so ago it wasn't uncommon to marry, or for men to hold responsible positions, in one's teens. Nowadays mid to late 20s is more usual. | |
| May 29, 2019 at 12:19 | comment | added | sofa general | @LangLangC: it is the internet.. people criticize heterosexual and every other kind of relationships all the time.. doesn't make it a societal or statistically significant bias.. | |
| May 29, 2019 at 6:42 | comment | added | LаngLаngС | @sofageneral Indeed puzzling to see that assertion without citation in the Q. If we look at Berlusconi, Trump (Donald and Ivana!), Macron, Cassell, Kim Cattrall, Jennifer Lopez, Vivianne Westwood or Madonna, I see plenty of criticism, but less persistent about age differences, once the possible peculiarity of 'bit unusual, ah well' is accepted (apparently quickly & in all directions), it seizes to be an issue that leads to any societal pressure? | |
| May 28, 2019 at 20:10 | comment | added | sofa general | your assertion that society frowns upon some "marriage age gap" is... i believe baseless. It reflects more your own personal opinion that societal opinion... | |
| May 28, 2019 at 19:32 | history | edited | 米凯乐 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 28, 2019 at 7:21 | comment | added | LаngLаngС | Well, "do they" now? Please cite that this is true now in the US. (And I guess is makes a huge difference between "teenage" and "x-years-younger". So a source should probably prove that 23-year-olds cannot marry whomever they want in terms of age because of (expected) societal repercussions for 'inappropriateness' if male is older than xy years; and how 'strong' these repercussions might be.) | |
| May 28, 2019 at 0:24 | comment | added | C Monsour | I think the tone of your question is a bit off. If your 70-year-old father remarried a 20-year-old woman, I very much doubt you would think it was the 20-year-old woman who was in need of help!!! | |
| May 27, 2019 at 17:49 | history | notice added | MCW♦ | Needs citation | |
| May 27, 2019 at 17:21 | comment | added | RedSonja | An affair? She was a slave. She had no way to consent or to refuse. That was rape. | |
| May 27, 2019 at 7:53 | answer | added | Gunther Schadow | timeline score: -3 | |
| Apr 27, 2017 at 15:43 | comment | added | user15620 | Sadly, I am fairly certain that the Hemings-Jefferson match was very typical for the American South during slavery. | |
| Mar 31, 2017 at 21:29 | comment | added | 米凯乐 | Aaron Brick- I know Hemings-Jefferson wasn't exactly your typical relationship, it was just the one that made me ask about other relationships. Besides, my instructors that I asked told me this behavior was normal for the time, so I'm not just using Hemings... | |
| Mar 30, 2017 at 20:18 | vote | accept | 米凯乐 | ||
| Mar 30, 2017 at 14:24 | comment | added | T.E.D.♦ | Having trouble digging it up now, but thought I read an analysis of this once that showed the average age discrepancy not being a whole lot different today than historically. Best I could dig up on short notice is US stats showing it only growing 2 years closer since 1890 (from 4 years to 2) | |
| Mar 30, 2017 at 10:09 | answer | added | Luís Henrique | timeline score: 12 | |
| Mar 30, 2017 at 6:39 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackHistory/status/847337433830088704 | ||
| Mar 30, 2017 at 3:33 | comment | added | user18968 | Using Sally Hemings as an example in this question is a terrible idea not only because her famous relationship was not a marriage, but because it was an unusual case with other key factors. | |
| Mar 29, 2017 at 23:18 | comment | added | user15620 | I think @MarkC.Wallace's comment is the beginning of the real answer. I suspect that if you looked at gender ratios for those time periods, you'd find substantially more men than women over a certain age. Also, marriage, especially among the elite was very much about procreation, and a 70 year old man is not going to get an heir from a woman in his own age bracket. | |
| Mar 29, 2017 at 19:29 | history | edited | 米凯乐 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 29, 2017 at 14:14 | comment | added | EvanM | Do you mean just in the US? If not an argument could be made that in a lot of civilization this still exists in one form or another. I think that the ages hav just changed from teens to early 20's because of the increase in life expectancy. In countries that still have low life expectancies you still see young brides m.ranker.com/list/famous-men-who-married-much-younger-women/… | |
| Mar 29, 2017 at 6:54 | comment | added | Jeff | I think the acceptance of large gaps in age was perhaps related to the extremely limited job prospects for women until fairly recently -- perhaps after more careers began to open up for women (in the 1960s) age gaps began to be looked down upon. | |
| Mar 28, 2017 at 20:58 | comment | added | MCW♦ | It had something to do with the survival rate of women - women died of complications of childbirth. Since there were no easy ways to prevent childbirth, the mortality rate for 65 year old women was dire. If older men wanted wives, statistically they had to seek out younger women. In the modern era when mortality from childbirth is lower and pregnancy preventable.... | |
| Mar 28, 2017 at 20:41 | answer | added | Lanet Rino | timeline score: 1 | |
| Mar 28, 2017 at 20:25 | history | asked | 米凯乐 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |