A Bride's Story - Vol. 1 Ch. 1 - Bride and Groom

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Kinda creepy that a 20 year old adult is married to a 12 year old pre-teen. Switch the genders and I think everyone could see the issue
Yeah, it would be "kinda creepy" (come on, sound off about this if you're going to call it pedophilia) if the sexes were swapped. Thanks for reminding us about how something that works in one way doesn't work the other way because we have biases.

...seriously speaking, the culture being depicted is different and the 12 year old is almost certainly already socialized as a man in this particular culture, in this particular era-- if only barely so. It's also fiction, so I don't have to hold real world standards to begin with, and it's clear enough that this detail doesn't just exist to permit the relationship but is a natural part of the web of standards of the culture depicted.

In terms of writing, I tend to observe that age gap relationships in general are only feasible (read: are not and do not devolve into pornography) when 1) the two parties have relatively similar maturity levels OR the younger party endeavors to match the older party's maturity level, and 2) the older party is passive while the younger party pursues until the older party is won over. Presumably, the point of these conditions is to establish that the superior party isn't using their power (social or physical) in order to coerce the subordinate party and that the superior party is actually quite harmless, which is why these conditions probably apply to teacher/student and boss/subordinate premises as well.

I'm about 10 chapters in, and the relationship satisfies those conditions (well, to the extent they're applicable-- they're already married, but there's still the matter of them growing affections afterwards).
 
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Art is beautiful and I’ve been meaning to read this for a while. My ethnicity are are muslim desert nomads and studying Central Asian history and culture is a pastime so this is right up my alley.

1 thing : her name is アミル・ハルガル = Amiru Harugaru = Amir Halgal . I dont understand why the translators rolled with Amira Hergal .
Amir is a male’s name while Amira is female, probably why.
 
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I mean gender stereotypes don't explain or excuse pedophilia......
...seriously speaking, the culture being depicted is different and the 12 year old is almost certainly already socialized as a man in this particular culture, in this particular era-- if only barely so. It's also fiction, so I don't have to hold real world standards to begin with, and it's clear enough that this detail doesn't just exist to permit the relationship but is a natural part of the web of standards of the culture depicted.
The 12 year old is a man in that particular cultural setting, he has the mental aptitude to navigate a marriage. Hold your horses, this ain't pedo stuff

My thought is that this seems like a culture with arranged marriages where brides move in with their husband's families and marriage in that kind of culture has different implications from marriage in a culture where people choose their own spouses and move into their own space.

Mainly, if you're the one choosing your son's wife and she'll move in with you after marriage it doesn't really matter if one or both of them is still super young when they get married? They don't have to be a fully functional team from the get go because you're around to take care of them.

Also the spouse your family chooses for you might be a kid and you kinda just have to deal with that. And by "deal with it" I mean you probably just think of them as a kid you have to live with.

By the by couldn't find an in depth source but I went through Wikipedia's list of child bridegrooms and there were a bunch who were 12 or younger when they got married but 19 or older when their first child was born. Point is I don't think people expected a 12 year old groom to be what we'd consider a husband immediately.
 

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