Scarlett was 16 at the start of the story, not 14. I've read the book, and the author pointed out that rich Southern girls finished what little education they had by 16 and set out to find a husband at that age. And that after being widowed at 17, Scarlett went back on the social circuit after a while, and found that a widow of 19 (with a kid) was no longer the belle of the ball, all the younger girls were! This was carefully outlined for readers of the 1930s, who obviously had different expectations for young women.
I'll tell you the story of a girl who did marry legally at 13, in the 1930s. Ever see "Gypsy", the story of burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee, and her sister June Havoc? Well June did marry at 13, married legally. She got sick of vaudeville and her monstrous stage mother, and married the first boy who asked, just to get away. She was still a vaudeville "child star" at 13, her family thought of her as a little girl, and they were horrified to find out that the state they were in allowed children of 13 to marry legally. They were as far from well-educated or high class as could be, and Rose the horrible stage mother had married at 16 in the 1910s, but even they were aghast to find out that it was legal for kids that age to marry in the US.
I read the autobiographies of both sisters, fascinating reads. And BTW when June married at 13 to a boy of 14 or 15, they didn't have sex for a couple of years... because neither of them knew what to do when they were alone together! Unlike today, nobody talked to 1930s kids of that age about sex, much less expected them to be getting married.
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TaRaNRoD (1579)
7 years ago
Well okay I didn't expect such a long answer for my comment just to prove me wrong but okay... Whatever...
The two next paragraphs weren't really necessary but okay.... And come on, don't be so ignorant... Everyone, by instinct, "knows" about sex from the moment they reach the age of puberty. Of course we don't know how it works or what consequences might come with this. But in a way or another, when two people get intimate they don't need a guide to discover how it's done even without any education.
Well at least prior to my first time I had sex, the only somehow "useful" education I had about it, came from porn. Sex ed classes were total horseshit in my school (and apparently the whole city). They sure gave us a little trauma by showing graphic picture of STDs... But that was pretty much the only remotely handy information we received.
However, my first time I didn't need a guide to instruct me what to do, and I did it at a pretty early age.
My point being, "they didn't know how sex was done" is utter bullshit.
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Otter (24464)
7 years ago
I'm not saying that people in the 1930s didn't know how sex was done, I'm saying that one person wrote in her autobiography that neither she nor her husband knew how sex was done when they married as teenagers in the 1930s.
They had a baby a few years later, so they did figure it out.
And if I am going on an on, it's because I'm interested in varying sexual attitudes through history.
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TaRaNRoD (1579)
5 years ago
OMG I am SO sorry for this confusion. Of course between the time she was 14 and 16 she became a full grown woman! So yeah sorry, thid makes this whole story way less creepy by today's standards!
*rolls eyes*
Now to be serious: what is your fucking point anyways? 14 or 16 there not a big difference, she was still a retarded fucking child dating a 30+ years old guy.
So I guess you came with this argument to legitimize the fact that you are a 40+ years old creep who's fucking a 16 years old child thinking that "she is SUCH an adult".
Your intervention was pointless so shut the fuck up moron.
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