Disclaimer: This is from my perspective, as a woman in her 20s.
These past years, and I believe along the way back, there has always been an early marriage. People aged 20 years old and younger are already getting married. As we are becoming progressively conscious of mental health, I think we have to think critically about this issue as well. Especially marriage indeed, impacts ourselves, let alone early marriage.
In this article, I am giving you my reasons I disagree with early marriage. Regarding my disagreement about early marriage, the two main reasons are we have not yet developed our identity and are simply not mature enough. I will elaborate on these two reasons below.
Early marriage and identity
As a woman, even as a young girl, most of the time, we have been defined or constructed by societal or gender norms. Not to mention when we are among our peers, there are a lot of problems regarding peer pressure and pleasing people. Hence, we might function accordingly to fit the mould. This might cause us to bend our identities to be acceptable. As a result, we haven’t explored our identity yet outside of the standards.
Getting married when our identity is underdeveloped might interfere with the process of exploring ourselves. Marriage can also distance us from our identity because we identify as someone else’s partner. As a partner, we absorb a new societal standard to be a good partner. Finding our identity first before marriage is important, so we don’t lose track of ourselves. It also takes process, and I don’t think we can finish it at such a young age.
Early marriage and maturity
During a young age, to be blunt, we are simply not mature enough. We are constantly growing our ideals, changing styles, and finding out about something to make up our minds. We might even disagree with how our past selves behave and their ideals. We might even face emotional turbulences with no experience yet to manage it. Besides, we might overcome new challenges to become mature. These experiences are to be obtained at a young age independently.
Marriage at this young age, when we are not mature enough, might slow down our process. Although a partner might help, there are certain experiences that we have to face ourselves independently first. Simply put, we need a basis from our experiences independently (that leads to maturity), to live co-dependently with someone. Marriage at a young age prevents us from being mature independently first.
Conclusions
To sum it up, I disagree with early marriage for the reasons stated above: our identity is underdeveloped and we are still immature. I believe the two reasons correlate with one another. For instance, maturity is also a process of gaining our identity. An underdeveloped identity might cause us to be immature.
