Historically, men have had a fixation with young women. A tale as old as time; the richer, older man marrying the youthful, beautiful, yet, less powerful woman. In the past, child marriages rooted in gender inequality were commonplace and in some countries even in the present, marriages like these still occur. This immoral practice, like most of society’s customs, stemmed from the objectification of women and the relation of their value to fertility and beauty. The younger a woman, the ‘more fertile’, therefore the more likely to produce an heir. In most religions’ marriage was banned for children before puberty, however when many girls went through puberty between the ages of 9-12 these customs normalised child marriage. A common consequence of child marriage was and continues to be young girls dying of pregnancy or childbirth. This is because children of around 10’s bodies are unable to support a child, resulting in death of both the child and her baby. Religious laws for women and men are different too still to this day. The minimum ages of consent for marriage in the Catholic Church are fourteen for girls and sixteen for boys. Being underage constitutes a diriment impediment. This gender inequality reinforces the idea that girls mature quicker, when in fact they are forced to due to sexualisation early on in childhood.
The way we view beauty is inherently paedophilic. Women are sold anti-aging products, whereas wrinkles on men ‘look good’, women are told to be completely hairless and have soft baby-like skin. The fashion industry previously only featured slender girls with small breasts and hips and society has an obsession with purity and virginity. These traits which women are told to possess all have one thing in common; they are the traits of a child. Black for the spectator writes:
“Year after year, middle-aged or older male celebrities win titles like People Magazine's “Sexiest Man Alive.” Men are allowed to have wrinkles and grey hair, while women are criticized as soon as their skin becomes imperfect. To be masculine is to be a man, fully grown, and developed with signs of age and wear; to be feminine, however, is to be a “girl,” dainty, and “cute” the way a child is.”
The beauty standard most women aspire to look like is built upon the paedophilic customs of the past. Once we are aware of this, it is easy to understand the mentality of the 2010’s Tumblr, Lana Del Ray era.
It isn’t such a stretch that this underage beauty standard has too rubbed off on women and their own mentality about not just beauty but also their relationships. In 2012, Lana Del Rey released the song 'Lolita' on her ‘Born to Die: The Paradise Edition’ Album. The song, titled after the book of the same name, is a song about an older man’s lust for an underage girl. The song features lyrics like ‘I could be yours, I could be your baby tonight’ and ‘No more skipping rope, skipping heartbeats with the boy’s downtown’. This obsession with the story about a forty-year-old man who falls in love with a twelve-year-old girl absolutely flooded Tumblr during the period of 2010-2015. This also coincided with the popularity of artists like Melanie Martinez and her album ‘Cry Baby’ which included songs like ‘Sippy Cup’ and ‘Tag your, It’. This shows that humanity’s obsession with older men and younger woman being together is still prevalent to this day.
All things considered, it is clear that society has an obsession with youth. Society views both youth and femininity as a package deal and not as two very separate concepts. This fetishisation of young girls is engrained within many cultures and can only be unlearnt if steps are taken to understand the ways in which paedophilia seeps into traditions and customs.
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