“Is your objection to the age of the bride or the age of the groom?”

Honestly?  Neither.  My objection is to the vast age difference between the two.

“That is to say, would you oppose the marriage of a 16-year-old under any circumstances…”

No.

“…or only if her husband was so much older?”

Yes.

“And is a 35-year age difference between bride and groom always objectionable?”

No.

“Would it be OK if a 25-year-old married a 60-year-old?”

That would be entirely dependent on the personalities and life experiences of the individuals involved.

I am not opposed to teenagers marrying each other.  So long as the parents on both sides give their blessing, then I have no reason to object.  This is especially true if a pregnancy is involved.

I’m also not opposed to older teenagers — 18-19 years old — marrying people in their twenties, or even their early thirties.   The generational difference between the two is not so extreme as to present a barrier.

But there is absolutely no way that a marriage between a 16 year old girl and a 51 year old man is healthy for either party, outside of pre-Industrial Revolution society where women would often die in childbirth and men would remarry young women.  

Let’s just look at the cultural differences between a 16 year old and a 51 year old.

A 16 year old was born in 1995.
-She was born during the Clinton Presidency
-She was not alive  for the Persian Gulf War
-She was not alive for most if not all of the Bosnian War
-She was six on September 11, 2001.
-She has always known cell phones, computers, and DVD players
-She has probably never listened to a cassette tape or rented a VHS movie
-The highest grossing film the year she was born was “Batman Forever” with Val Kilmer, Jim Carrey, and Tommy Lee Jones
-The best selling album in the US the year she was born was “Cracked Rear View” by Hootie and the Blowfish

A 51 year old was born in 1960 (specifically May 26, 1960)
-He was born during the Kennedy administration, and he was three at the time of Kennedy’s assassination
-He was three when the 8-track cassette tape was invented
-He was four when the Civil Rights Act was passed
-He was five when LBJ introduced the Great Society
-He was 16 when Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976
-The highest grossing film the year he was born was  “Let’s Make Love” with Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis
-The best selling album the year he was born was the soundtrack to “The Sound of Music”
There is a huge gap not only in age, but in life experience.  That’s why a marriage between a thirty year old and a sixty five year old isn’t as hard to stomach.  They may not have shared all the same experiences, but they’ve both lived long enough to have gotten enough life experience under their belts to be able to find common ground. 

I’m not saying it’s impossible for this marriage to work, just that I find it very, very unlikely.  I wish them the best, of course, and hope that all the cards stacked against them don’t come tumbling down around their shoulders.  I’d rather root for a marriage to be happy and successful than root for it to fail.

The Neanderthals were the SEIU of their day.

You can have your cake and eat it too on the abortion issue. Appoint enough conservative judges to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade. Once its overturned, we can do away with federal funding of abortions, but in the meantime the issue will go back to the states, where the blue states can continue to engage in the thinning of their own leftist herds. Win, win.

Do you all really want to know about how I feel about this issue? Not that I think any of you do, but just in case-I don’t give a big rat’s ass.

Having been married to someone 10.5 yrs younger than myself for 13.5 years and then being married to someone 8 years OLDER than myself for 2 years, I can see the issues…

She is probably looking for a father figure, was dependent on her manager to look after her, for security etc. and decided to marry him.  Most gals like to be looked after…

I agree with the commenter who says they have little in common.  My first husband didn’t even know who Richard Nixon was!  I remembered the speech and impeachment and Nixon getting off a plane on tv and the big deal it was and hubby was only a year old when it happened and didn’t know anything about it.  He thought stupid movies were funny (like Wayne’s World) and I could hardly stomach watching them.  Much more mature relationship with the smaller age gap and the older man.  Just saying.

Wish them luck!  I’d like to know if the groom had been married before?  Possibly several times??  Think he was simply looking for eye candy on his arm.  Will she still love him when he’s 80 and she’s still young and he’s wearing Depends and in the nursing home??

To be fair outraged incoherence is their default policy on everything.

Well can you imagine eating anchovies or skydiving or giving away all your money. Just because something isn’t right for you doesn’t make it wrong for someone else. A handful of decades ago, in America, people floated the same indignation when a Catholic girl married a Jew, a Polish girl married an Italian, a white girl married a black… Laws are meant to protect the weak. Thousands of legislators in 50 states have declared the age of consent, many with the permission of the parents to be 16. Live and let live. Long live the freedom of choice in America. Google Celine Dion and her husbands age. She worships the ground he walks on. Adores him. Would you go back into her past and deny her the deepest love she has, so far, found in this life?

Maybe, being all traditional, emotional, and momma-bear-like, I don’t think that 16-year-old girls are ready for either sex or matrimony.  Those extra years from 16 to 18 make a big difference, as does 18 to 20.

Also, some teenagers who marry have known their spouses for years before being wed.  Dating all through high school and marrying during freshman year of college is an entirely different thing than marrying someone you’ve known for a few months prior to engagement. 

I can’t really blame the old guy for wanting a young hottie like that.  And hey, at least he’s honorable enough to want to make it legit.  And her, well I can’t really blame her either.  She’s just young and unwise.

The parents, on the other hand.  They make me sick for letting their daughter take the path that has led her to that old man.  They make me sick for being willing to agree to the wedding.

So there you go.  No problem with huge age differences.  Marriage is a contract, and none of my dang bizness.  If it works for ya both, great.

But the parents?  FAIL.

The technogeek comic XKCD proposed a useful formula to find out if They’re Too Young For You: if your age is x, then it’s not creepy to have a relationship with them if their age is greater than (x/2)+7.

For example, under this formula it was not creepy for Fred Thompson and his wife, being 65 and 41 respectively, because (65/2)+7 = 39.5 < 41.

But for this pair, at 51 and 16, under this formula it will stop being creepy in 33 years (2044) when he is 84 and she is 49.

Or maybe anti-virus software.

I’d say YOU should brush up on your prose skills. Having to write all the above to explain your prior statements is a self-indictment.

I gotta admit this seems to be inconsistent with your post on egg freezin’s.  Marrying someone the age of a grandchild is ALSO messing with the generational impact of a baby.  How d’you square that circle?

Alcee, attempting to dictate whether or not these two have a right to love each other is seriously creepy.