51 year old actor Doug Hutchison (The Green Mile) recently married 16 year old Alexis Stodden in Nevada, setting off a wave of complaints from women about how “creepy” it is for such an old guy to marry such a young woman. Well, it is a bit odd, but neither of the two looks their age in all fairness, so they don’t make a terrible couple on camera at least…
A lot of women might make the point that a woman that age doesn’t know what she’s getting into, but I’m not sure that’s the case, and in any event I haven’t heard many feminists complain about underage boys getting hit up for child support owed to older women. Alexis is from Washington state, where the age of consent is 16 (which is reasonable IMO), so if all Mr. Hutchison wanted to do was sleep with the girl he would be in the clear. Is it morally worse to marry her than to simply have a fling?
We shouldn’t be in the business of deciding how people want to live their lives, and if a person can consent to sex why should they be unable to marry? This would verge on religious discrimination, as some faiths consider marriage to be essential prior to sex.
However, there are other problems with the setup, and they affect Doug Hutchison rather than his young bride. While some men may be congratulating Mr. Hutchison on his “score,” given contemporary norms and laws I think the guy made a terribly risky decision. A woman that young and that attractive is probably going to sleep around. Sure, some older men may be comfortable with that setup, but say the girl decides to divorce him in a couple years. This is where it gets tricky.
If a woman is under 18, she cannot be held to a legally-binding contract, so even if Hutchison drew up a prenup, it will be entirely unenforceable. All she has to do is show that she signed while a minor, and any judge will throw it out. This means that Alexis can divorce her husband and take him for half of all his assets at any time. He has no protection whatsoever, and she has every incentive to leave as soon as she gets tired of him.
It is kind of ironic that today an older guy has a much bigger incentive to simply use a young woman for sex than he does to actually take responsibility for her, but women got what they wanted. Frankly, most of the women complaining about this marriage probably know deep down that they would have been lucky to pull off what Stodden did. So perhaps it’s all just sour grapes.
As for Hutchison, I hope he has fun while it lasts, because when that little birdie flies off it’s going to be pretty painful.
