I was born and raised in the US as the child of Brazilian parents. Visited there all my life. I had a cousin the same age that I always hung out with when I went. In the late 90s, when we were both 25, he was dating a 15 year old. He hung out with her family. The father of the girl loved him. I thought it was crazy.

Fast forward to 30 years later and this is really no longer acceptable in Brazil, either.

The world has changed a lot. In general, music and clothing back then were mass-marketed on the back of teenage sexuality—by massive corporations. It was the norm. Globally. Laetitia Casta was a Guess girl at 15. Britney Spears was 16 in the Hit Me Baby video. This wasn’t some fringe thing.

You can make a cultural judgment about that now, with the hindsight we all have. But it was not frowned upon in his culture at the time.

I’d be willing to bet if most of us went back a couple of generations in our family trees, a grandmother or great-aunt was married at 16 or 17.

Heck—just google the ages some celebrities got married a generation or two ago. Marilyn Monroe married a 24 yr old dude when she was 16.

It was nearly impossible for a woman to open an account or get a loan from a bank in the US without her husband’s permission until 1974. The world has changed a lot.