Vaysh

That video was just... weird. Bin does not look excited at all, in fact he looks sort of vaguely sad and a bit insecure at times like he's wanting to please but can't quite muster up the energy. I wonder if Blessa's 'don't mess with Jess'-personality has been rearing it's head during her pregnancy. I'm speculating here, but I do tend to see her as a person who has no problems showing her displeasure with people. Either straight out or, perhaps more likely considering her upbringing, in passive-aggressive ways that poor dumb Bin isn't experienced or smart enough to deal with. Didn't his family describe him as someone who was pretty gentle and didn't like conflicts?

I feel sorry for Hannie right now; she's in a weird place in the sibling line-up. Her older sisters are all grown up and she has never seemed particularly close to Jennie. Jackson was her best friend but there appears to be some kind of separation going on (at least judging by recent pictures), either because her dumb parents can't have two siblings of the opposite sex spending too much time alone together now that they're not babies anymore or, which is just as likely, Hannie's outgrowing Jackson. Girls tend to mature faster in general and Jackson is extremely immature for an eleven year old. Whatever the reason, Hannie is in limbo. Too young to bond with her older sisters in a non-parent/child relationship, and not getting/wanting to hang with Jackson as much as she used to. If the Duggars were a normal family instead of paranoid isolationists this wouldn't be a problem; Hannie would have classmates and friends her own age to play with, kids she would've chosen as friends because they were compatible with her, not because they came out of the same womb. She must feel lonely.

I must admit I've never heard of fasting as a means to make God do something. I always thought it was to humble and better oneself, get more deeply connected to one's religion and to get a physical reminder that there are poor and hungry people in the world that need your help. That's how a Coptic friend of mine explained it and I think there's some similar thinking behind the Muslim Ramadan. Is there a different purpose behind fasting in fundie circles or is it just something Jill came up with on her own?

Jana's hair actually look pretty normal in this picture; decent length, no Gothard-approved waves, no scraggly ends. Is it just me or has Jana and Jinger been looking less frumpy and more mainstream ever since Jill and Jessa escaped with most of their wardrobe?

In that particular picture she looks horrible imo, not thin but skinny bordering on scrawny and with a fake grin that doesn't reach her eyes. I've seen her looking better in other photos though.

Oh look, there are two pink chairs. And they still don't match anything else in the house.

Hey, fundies need love too!

Oh god, the first response to the nipple issue: "I tell her that they aren't hers but they are mine." WTF?? I'm so icked out right now. I don't like Jessa much but I hope, hope, hope that this isn't how Bin was raised to view his wife and her body. Like property.

Yes, I never understood why Jessa or Jill didn't get classy up-dos instead of just wearing their hair exactly like they always do. I've seen them with their hair up plenty of times after the weddings so it's clearly not a foreign concept to them. Maybe it was a final act of obedience to daddy; Boob prefers their hair down and wavy, remember.

In the sense that there are people who consider themselves witches and who believe in what they're doing, sure. Magic in the sense of actually changing or manipulating the physical laws of nature and the universe in the service of some demonic power, like the Duggars appear to believe, not so much. But then they won't even let their kids talk about imaginary magical creatures like unicorns, so there is clearly some severe inability to separate fiction from reality going on. I just feel sorry for those kids for not being allowed to read Harry Potter.

So. These are adult individuals. And they believe in magic. And that witches are real. And that spell-casting is an actual thing. That people do. For real. ...ok. I just can't imagine how strange their mental landscape must be what with witches and magic and demons lurking around every corner; it's almost medieval. It's actually fascinating in an anthropological sense. Take a modern human, remove all the reason, thought and knowledge of the past 300 years, add a shit-load of superstition, ban critical thinking, and the end result: a Duggar.

All hail the Great Whale. (sorry)

One might even say sly.

"Bible-believing" church, wtf? I'm an atheist and I still find this expression unbelievably smug, condescending and ignorant. What else would a church believe in, Moby Dick?

Drums! The horror! I thought music with a beat was of the Devil in Duggarland. Or is it just when other people do it?

I just cannot stop laughing. He's not all that bright is our Joshie boy? Did he actually want to be recognised? Or why the half-assed cover of half his face? Did he realise that the first picture, with a fully covered face, brought zero game despite all that manly elbow chub? And then went 'oooh, but I'm a reality star, I could get groupies!' Yet still somewhat realising that anonymity is a good thing when attempting to cheat on your wife on a creeper website and then so, with true Duggar logic, he ended up somewhere in-between? Did he think that since it works for Batman it would work for him? I have so many questions here.

OMG this thread moves so fast but: All the girls in my class read Clan of the Cave Bear in 5th grade, it was like a rite of passage and it gave me some seriously unrealistic expectations in certain areas I have to say, heh. A couple of years later I watched the movie at school, in history class, because it was apparently considered educational, though I don't actually remember anything about it except for that sex scene. As many of you, I was also pretty much allowed to read whatever I wanted, except for this one series of historical saga/soft porn (Legend of the Ice People), which I wasn't deemed to be old enough to read until about 4th grade. After that everything was allowed. Cave Bears, Jackie Collins, Stephen King, Flowers in the Attic or whatever book took my fancy. I think me and most of my classmates had stopped reading kids' books by the time we were twelve. I wonder if kids these days are more "innocent" in their reading habits since Young Adult has become such a huge thing, or if they read adult books as well.

I'm gonna start using that line, it's perfect. I do think parents who demand to know their children's every sexual thought and impulse (and, perhaps more importantly, espouse that those thoughts are evil and sinful) are leaning heavily into abusive territory. If any other adult would do the same, approach a child or teen and demand detailed information on their sexual fantasies, we'd be calling the cops. Abusive or not, the whole practice is really icky in my opinion (and I'm right!)

But, but but... there is no such thing as a hymen to keep "intact". The existence of a hymen that breaks upon first entry so to speak, is nothing but a lovingly perpetuated myth with absolutely no basis in biological fact. There is literally no physical way to determine whether a woman is a virgin or not. What kind of quack doctor did she go to anyway, the same one who blamed Michelle's miscarriage on the Pill? Also, ew.

Wouldn't that be considered sodomy and thus dirtybadwrong and a one way ticket to hell?

It wasn't even a news story when I read it first, it was a comment made on another story where the readers were encouraged to share any dirt they had on the Duggars. It's hard to know what to think about it since everyone seems to have a different idea about who said what and what really happened. It sounds outlandish and gross, but at the same time I have no problem believing that Jim Boob would punish his sons for masturbating and doing it in as humiliating a way as possible in order to make an example out of them. I find Boob's relationship with his sons to be dysfunctional, weirldy competetive and completely lacking in respect and genuine compassion on his part. He's shown over and over again that he can't stand them one-upping him, even in something as silly as a game or a friendly competition. The way he blatantly disobeyed John David in the Take-Dad-To-Work-episode, combined with JD's resigned reaction, tells me that this is common behaviour. Boob needs to keep his grown sons downtrodden in order to boost his own fragile ego and what better way to do so than by controlling their sexuality in every way and to publicly humiliate them when they step out of line. This family's lack of boundaries when it comes to sex and their hypervigilance regarding the kids' "purity" is so messed up that even something as extreme as the story above wouldn't actually surprise me at this point.

Considering how limited Jill's English is, how well could she learn a second language? Would her limits in her native tongue make it harder for her to learn Spanish, or would learning a second language actually improve her English?

I'm not sure the Bates family is any less crazy than the Duggars in terms of religious dogma, it's just that they lack some of the Duggar neuroses and have friendlier personas. Gil Bates has been far deeper involved with Gothard's inner circle than Jim Bob has for decades so I'm assuming he fully agrees with the slut-shaming, victim blaming, female subjugation ideology of Christian Patriarchy. I also assume that, since he's been on IBLP's board of directors for yonks, he's been fully aware of Bill Gothard's proclivities for a long time and either a) agrees with Gothard's excuses and victim-blaming (which makes him a creep) or b) was fully aware that Ol' Bill's actions were abusive and wrong but didn't want to rock the boat (which makes him a coward). I agree that marrying a Bates might be a better situation for Jinger than staying at home, but she's not moving up or away, just sideways.

Anna looks really good and thinner in a healthy way, and she doesn't have that tired, strained look she had for a bit. I hope it's because of her lack of Josh and that she realises how much better off she is without that lardy perv before he gets out of Jesus jail. On a different note, do these people ever not smile like maniacs when faced with a camera? It's kind of disturbing when one looks at several pictures in a row, how they all have that rictus grin. Aside from poor Jennie whom I sort of both admire and feel sad for. Girlfriend either don't give a shit about keeping sweet or she's just too depressed to muster up the energy to fake a smile (same thing seems to be true for Mikey lately).

I thought medical professionals frowned on people painting their nails before any kind of procedure because your nails going blue is a sign of sudden blood loss and/or that your oxygen-levels have dropped. Which, you know, could be useful to be aware of. ...nevermind, there are no medical professionals involved here.