Ah, Times Square. It is truly a beautiful and captivating place that appeals to many different people. This would definitely include newly-married couples. However, there was one married couple in particular that shouldn’t have went, especially considering that many of the other passers-by quickly picked up on something being grotesquely different with this married couple.
You see, in this case, the “groom” was a senior citizen old enough to start receiving social security (i.e. 65) and his “bride” was not even old enough to be in junior high in some places (i.e. just 12).
Now, while the groom was smiling very broadly, his “bride” wasn’t happy. In front she had a huge frown on her face and appeared to be very depressed, to say the least.
It wasn’t soon after that the man and his much-younger bride started posing in different places within the square. After a while, people begin to start noticing that something was off about this couple.
First, there was one woman, who simply asked the girl, “Where is your mom?” and the little girl neglected to comment. Instead, the old man answered for her, saying that he had permission from the girl’s parents to marry her. Needless to say, the woman became somewhat irate, saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
There was another interesting encounter between the bride and groom and another man. The best way to sum up this encounter is that the younger man was simply not buying it at all. He first questioned the age of the bride, and then he questioned the whole entire thing completely.
“This is garbage!” he said. “This is not right! If we called the police, I bet you’d get locked up!” The man even attempted to approach this groom and his bride, but the “groom” brushed him away, saying he had security for the event.
Finally, yet another woman took it a step further. She attempted to take the girl’s hand and get her away from the situation, but the man would not let her go. All the while, the woman was asking the girl if she was even a willing participant.
If this seems like a disturbing story to you, you wouldn’t be the only one who feels that way. However, this is some good news regarding this story: first of all, in this situation, this wasn’t a real marriage between a 65-year-old man and a 12-year-old young girl.
These two were simply just actors playing a part. Furthermore, this was simply just a social experiment designed by YouTube celebrity Cody Persin to illustrate the current social problem of child marriages in the world. At present, they are legal in 91 countries throughout the world and even in a few parts of the United States.
Not to worry about this particular “marriage” though. In this case, it was only done to raise awareness of the problem of child marriage, which happens all over the world.
In some places, 12 would be considered an old maid! Children as young as six are often married off! Either way, this is definitely something that shouldn’t be taking place in the present day.
How did this social experiment make you feel? Was it effective for you in raising awareness of this serious worldwide problem?