Bluejeanbaby wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 6:51 am

scott61 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 6:02 am

HaifongWangchuck wrote: ↑Wed Nov 27, 2024 10:48 pm

Has anyone ever actually heard of a marriage or relationship being rejected by Khmer people because of an age gap? It's not that usual, but it's not entirely common to see even Khmer men in in their 30s or 40s dating teenage girls, and certainly no one will object if their families don't: In fact, just today my Tuktuk driver was a man of 41 married to a girl who is almost 17; they told me their friends joke but everyone (including their families) has been supportive, with only strangers ever making rude comments.

I agree. The concept of age gap is not an issue here. She is an adult at the age of 19, and so any age is appropriate. People in the West who find it gross or weird, have developed within a culture in which there is a long period called adolescence lasting from puberty up to as late as age 24. In South-East Asia and most parts of the world, those we class as adolescents, and even children, are not seen as precious, and may well be sent out to work.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-01- ... cence.html

7 Doctors at the Royal Children's Hospital in Australia called for the change from 19 to 24. Something to do with wisdom teeth, the World Health Organization still considers adolescence to end at 19.

These same doctors told us that paper masks would prevent the spread of COVID (after they first told us they wouldn't) and then made Australians "earn" their own freedom back as part of unscientific, tendentious lockdown requirements that the rest of the world emulated to disastrious effect: Pardon me for being frank, but Australians are literally the last people on the planet that should be listened to in any regards to science.

To suggest that children or adolescents are not considered precious by their parents in SE Asia or in most parts of the world because they may be sent to work is laughable, however poverty is not.

They are, but what is risible is the idea that anyone in the world should abide by and give a fuck about Western standards on age gaps when the West has proven to be a leader in not only post-modern confusion, but immorality as well. A Khmer family doesn't want their daughter living at home whether 16 or 26 having premarital sex, and the idea that premarital, risky sex is suddenly okay (as it would be in the West) just because the couple are similar in age would be a revolting and vomit-inducing concept to most Cambodian parents with the debate on premarital sex here literally having zero intersection with the age discourse currently dominating the Occidental world in lieu of the taboo discussions they really want to open a dialogue about (once again: any particular spot in the world outside the Anglophonic world would have people outlawing gay marriage as immoral and outrageous before they would outlaw age gaps for the same reason)

In America it is common for adolescents to have a part time job, it is something most parents are proud of, that their children take the initiative to start to plan for their future.

A form of oppression far more incidously dangerous than a 20-something dating his teenage girlfriend, and certainly far, far more exploitive...and yet Americans are proud. Go figure, a nation of serfs who convinced themselves they found liberty at the end of a slaver's lasso.

Many on this thread would consider it a wind up or a theoretical situation, I'm sure.

John Bingham wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 1:03 pm Most Cambodians marry people close to their own age. Many posters here seem to think impoverished and desperate young women are representative of the whole population. You're completely deluded if you think any normal teenager here would want to even touch a 68-year-old man.

A 68yr old? Yes, this would be socially embarassing and garner too much gossip, especially if with a Barang; But a man in his 30s or 40s? When I was a teenager--hell, even now--all the young women my age go for men in that late 20s-early 40s demographic if they're really beautiful or have a lot of others vying for their affections.

HaifongWangchuck wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 5:02 pm

John Bingham wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 1:03 pm Most Cambodians marry people close to their own age. Many posters here seem to think impoverished and desperate young women are representative of the whole population. You're completely deluded if you think any normal teenager here would want to even touch a 68-year-old man.

A 68yr old? Yes, this would be socially embarassing and garner too much gossip, especially if with a Barang; But a man in his 30s or 40s? When I was a teenager--hell, even now--all the young women my age go for men in that late 20s-early 40s demographic if they're really beautiful or have a lot of others vying for their affections.

not socially embarrassing at all and 100% accepted in all of SE Asia
everyone knows she married for his $$, security and to help her family
he married for.....

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 5:15 pm

HaifongWangchuck wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 5:02 pm

John Bingham wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 1:03 pm Most Cambodians marry people close to their own age. Many posters here seem to think impoverished and desperate young women are representative of the whole population. You're completely deluded if you think any normal teenager here would want to even touch a 68-year-old man.

A 68yr old? Yes, this would be socially embarassing and garner too much gossip, especially if with a Barang; But a man in his 30s or 40s? When I was a teenager--hell, even now--all the young women my age go for men in that late 20s-early 40s demographic if they're really beautiful or have a lot of others vying for their affections.

not socially embarrassing at all and 100% accepted in all of SE Asia
everyone knows she married for his $$, security and to help her family
he married for.....

I think most Khmer nationals of repute would draw the line at a 68 yr old with a teenager, at the very least because they don't want their daughters to become single mothers by 25, since the remarriage prospects to someone of quality become extremely low thereafter.

John Bingham wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 5:11 pm Where was that? Pakistan?

No, I came of age in Southeast Asia. You'll find most of the world is like this outside of the West and her vassal states

Bluejeanbaby wrote:https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-01- ... cence.html

7 Doctors at the Royal Children's Hospital in Australia called for the change from 19 to 24. Something to do with wisdom teeth, the World Health Organization still considers adolescence to end at 19.

Adolescence is a huge legal definition as well. 18 is where the age of understanding and consent is based.

Voting, going to university or trade school, getting a full time job, driving a car unsupervised, military service are all based on the idea they are no longer children, but adults. And are responsible for their own decisions and actions. As is the age to initiate marriage (below which is considered rape).

Fun time is over. At least in the US.

Declaring age 25 as the age to start adulthood is crazy. Biologically, at age 18 people are more fit than at age 25.

Aussies must be special.