When the subject of child marriage is brought up, our first thought is to think of third-world countries and the many advertisements trying to stop this activity from continuing. However, we never think of Florida and the many other states that enable child marriage within our own country. How is this possible? To put this simply and to the point, the law for some of these states that 18 is the legal age limit for one to get married without the consent of their parent/legal guardian. However, anyone under that age limit can get married or can even force to be married with the help of their parent/legal guardian such as Texas, Virginia, and Florida.
Sherry Johnson grew up in Tallahassee, Florida when she was raped at the age of 8, impregnated at 10, and married to said rapist at 11. All of this was possible with the help of her rapist and her mother, who was in complete denial about the predator when Johnson was first attacked until it was revealed that she was pregnant. Now divorced and supporting her children, her mission has been to forgive and to this day Johnson has gone to the capital and has made numerous statements supporting the #MeToo Movement. She has also been trying to end child marriage laws with a bill that sets the legal marriage law to 18 and 18 only with no exceptions. I hope that we can support the #MeToo movement and raise awareness about the disgusting horror of child abuse and child marriage in attempts to get rid of it entirely. There is no comfort in talking about this issue but there doesn't have to be, we should't have to be comfortable talking about something so awful in order to find a solution. We just have to acknowledge it's existence and move forward.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/29/health/ending-child-marriage-in-america/index.html
Olivia Wall- I did my current event over the same story, and I think it is so crazy but important to be aware of this.
ReplyDeleteI think that the fact that Johnson has the courage to share her story is very admirable. I find the fact that she could do nothing to stop what was happening to her infuriating. Even her mother was on the side of her rapist!!! This is awful, I think that child marriage needs to be put to an end so that nothing like this happens to anyone ever again.
ReplyDeleteI think it's important for survivors to preach their stories to the public, and it's so incredible that Johnson has had the strength to do this.
ReplyDeleteTo me this is very empowering that she is trying to end child marriage. You should be free to marry and spend the rest of your life with the man you love. Victims of child marriage should revolt and see just how powerful this movement could be
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of your points. This is such a saddening story but I'm so happy that the mother has learned from this experience and is now fighting to remedy the marriage laws. I think it should definitely be 18 and 18 only as well, and that way, we can eliminate the issue of girls being forced to marry their rapists.
ReplyDelete