Reply #109: I guess most 19 year olds these days agree to marriages to rich old farts.

[NNadir]

Nineteen year olds are all incompetants lead around by the nose by their elders, like Sophie Scholl or, if we must worship royalty, Elizabeth I who managed to save her own life (and those of her supporters) in high court intrigue at the age of 15, acceded to throne in great danger (at the same age as Diana became engaged, 19) and who in spite of incredible sexism, in spite of her maternity through a woman beheaded for treason, disarmed powerful men with decades of experience in high government treachery, many of whom were determined to kill her, and set herself on a course to preside, in a time of violent religous divisions, over the transformation of her country from a peasant backwater on the lower half of a divided island to one of the most powerful nations on earth.

A very ditzy 19 year old, no, that Elizabeth?

I suppose it IS clueless of me to assume that 19 year olds bear some responsibility for their actions or that they are in any way competant. After all, most 19 year old women get engaged to powerful men at the first opportunity. The point of being a 19 year old woman is to behave like a piece of stupid candy.