Nah, they’re not pedos – they want them to be through puberty (ie: have breasts and hips). They’re just really, really obsessed with making sure she’s a virgin.
There’s that horrific but telling line from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I can’t find it on IMDB, but it’s something like “now you think most 14 year olds would be old enough to know their own mind”. Doc Golightly, an otherwise non-creepy man who’s nearly old enough to be Holly’s grandfather, is telling Paul about the night he proposed to her.
In other words, it’s that horrible old saw, “if she’s old enough to bleed, she’s old enough to breed.”
It’s kind of like how a lot of the “mail order bride” men think now. They want a wife that’s sweet, gentle, “fresh”, and obedient. They don’t give a shit if she speaks English or knows about the world like they do, because they’re not marrying her to have important conversations with.
