Political Memes

Are you seriously trying to say that, because of this random online post on a predominantly male site (where most of the yes answers for "women" are likely men) that means that the predatory group isn't overwhelmingly men when it comes to child marriages? Or am I just cataclysmically misunderstanding your comment about the stated gender of the responses of post in response to someone simply talking about girls getting informally married off to men?

The UNFPA & UNICEF report that 95% of adults who marry children are men, while 5% are women. Between 85% and 95% of marriages between a child and an adult involve an adult male marrying a girl. The UN claims that in the US in particular, 86% of married children are girls, a significant majority of whom are married to adult men. According to the UNFPA, globally 25-30% of women get married before age 18, while 3-5% of men get married before age 18; and while most girls who get married are married to adult men, most boys who get married are married to girls (who are also children). Additionally, 10% of women get married before age 15, while 0.3% of men get married before age 15. This is likely because 1. a majority of cultures are highly patriarchal and young girls are often "sold off" as sex objects for (usually wealthy) men and 2. females are highly likely to be able to reproduce before 15, while males are more likely to not be able to reproduce until mid-adolescence, so girls are married much younger (again, nearly always adult men) in order to have children, while boys are usually married to girls around their age because they can have children anyways.

It's not like child marriage between boys and adult women doesn't happen, but let's not pretend that an overwhelming majority of adults marrying children aren't men marrying girls. The same goes for these unofficial marriages.