History Fun Fact!
Antoine Lavoisier was by contemporary standards what many could mistakenly consider a pedophile.
At his 28 years of age Antoine Lavoisier married Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier who was the daughter of Jacques Paulze, Antoine’s coworker at Ferme générale. At the time of the marriage she was 13 years old, and part of the reason of the marriage was to hinder a marriage proposal from a 50 year old guy. This however did not mean Antoine and Marie-Anne were not fond of each other.
While there is no proof he was a pedophile, there is a good chance he was a hebephile since hebephilia was actually held as the norm at the time.
Proof of their healthy relationship was that she eventually became Antoine’s trustworthy laboratory assistant and that she retained his last name even after Antoine’s execution during the Reign of Terror. She eventually got married again, but refused to change her last name again and the new marriage did not last, much likely due to Marie-Anne’s undying loyalty to her first husband. She also preserved Antoine’s legacy and published his final memoirs.
It is worth to note that she would not gain anything from keeping the Lavoisier last name since all their valuables were confiscated and their social status was brought down so any argument against that as proof of her loyalty is baseless.
In the end Antoine and Marie-Anne’s marriage was proof that arranged marriages were not always fucked up, that age difference is not a big deal once one hits puberty, and that intelligent people attract each other no matter the circumstances.
We should have more marriages like the Lavoisier marriage and less marriages like the Jenner-Kardashian marriage.
The Monthly Truth Seeker. 