Yeah, I was being taught it in the early 2000s! I've even had it foisted on me in college, lol.
There is a special irritation with things like that—things that have become so widespread even in reputable circles despite being profoundly and manifestly wrong—because you can't expect people to just know. And so much research is locked behind paywalls, ugh.
At the same time, GRRM himself has researched plenty in the course of the Real Gritty Middle Ages shtick, so he should know better. In fact, I think he probably does know, because he actually has commented about how child brides are uncommon in Westeros, he just ... constantly includes them, treated far more poorly than nearly all the small minority of historical child brides were actually treated.
And that really does make it an artistic choice as much as anything. To some degree, it'd be a creative decision in any case (deciding what to keep from your sources can be as significant as what you choose to discard), but when he's falling back on the trope in defiance of his conceptions of his setting, it's—uncomfortable.
(It definitely bothers me more than things like the idea that medieval people didn't really conceive of childhood, far less adolescence, which is equally wrong but something I think he genuinely didn't realize as he went about his Now With More Realism worldbuilding. That's annoying, but an error rather than gross in the way that the contradictory fetishization of young girls can be.)
no subject
There is a special irritation with things like that—things that have become so widespread even in reputable circles despite being profoundly and manifestly wrong—because you can't expect people to just know. And so much research is locked behind paywalls, ugh.
At the same time, GRRM himself has researched plenty in the course of the Real Gritty Middle Ages shtick, so he should know better. In fact, I think he probably does know, because he actually has commented about how child brides are uncommon in Westeros, he just ... constantly includes them, treated far more poorly than nearly all the small minority of historical child brides were actually treated.
And that really does make it an artistic choice as much as anything. To some degree, it'd be a creative decision in any case (deciding what to keep from your sources can be as significant as what you choose to discard), but when he's falling back on the trope in defiance of his conceptions of his setting, it's—uncomfortable.
(It definitely bothers me more than things like the idea that medieval people didn't really conceive of childhood, far less adolescence, which is equally wrong but something I think he genuinely didn't realize as he went about his Now With More Realism worldbuilding. That's annoying, but an error rather than gross in the way that the contradictory fetishization of young girls can be.)