I think modern men have an ahistorical view of female beauty, so the concept of universal marriage sounds more appealing than it was. We can't go back to that era, and I doubt anyone born today would actually be willing to do so, if they saw what life back then was actually like. 

 People have an ahistorical view about everything, basically. The concept of marriage generations ago on anyone’s head is just a soup of decontextualised biases.