Back in the summer of 2015, when the Duggars went through their two-pronged scandal (Josh molested his sisters! Josh is an adulterer!), I felt two things:
- Sad for Josh's sisters, whose stories were essentially told without their consent/sad for Josh's wife Anna, who was brainwashed by their culture into thinking that marrying Josh was a super great idea and who I knew would NEVER leave him because she would be shunned by her community and also she has four kids and no way to earn a living by herself.
- Selfishly pleased that the scandal raised awareness around the Quiverfull culture, upon which my play The Good Bride is based, juuuuust before the play's premiere.
As a side note, I was excited for the US to elect Hillary because of how she thinks women should have rights and stuff and I remember thinking that before long, the crazy patriarchal culture that spawned The Good Bride might start to be dismantled in a real way but HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHA MIKE PENCE THINKS GAYS CAN BE CURED AND WOMEN SHOULD HAVE NO REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS and since he'll essentially be running the country now, my play is more relevant than ever! Silver lining, motherfuckers!
Anyway, back to the Duggars. Like many people, I assumed that in the wake of the scandal, the Duggars would disappear for awhile - like, maybe a year or two - and then re-emerge, perhaps with a book about how these trials really strengthened their walk with Christ. But those people at TLC are geniuses.
In December, they did a three part mini-series, focusing on the older kids and Anna (which was basically them crying about how Josh screwed the whole family out of their sweet TLC deal). Josh did not appear in the special and, if memory serves, the Duggar parents Jim Bob and Michelle made minimal appearances, mainly in the background. And THEN, in March of 2016, TLC started a new series called "Counting On" which basically follows the older, newlywed and childbearing Duggars and, for the first few episodes, Anna. Of course, once Josh got home from Christian sex rehab, Anna basically disappeared.
In the first "season" of Counting On, pretty much fuck-all happened - quivers were filled, we learned that Ben likes Christian rap, we were sad that the eldest Duggar girl, Jana, still don't have no man. AND I STILL WATCHED IT, YOU GUYS. Why?? Why can't I look away from these wholesome, kinda dumb, corn-fed Christians who are basically using their show as an enticing advertisement for the faith???
Anyway, all this to say that I'm still watching it and the second "season" wrapped up tonight with Jinger's wedding to Jesus-loving former soccer player Jeremy after only being together for 5 months and THEN, they revealed that another Duggar is courting - and it's JOY.
I still think of Joy as a 12 year old tomboy, sandwiched between 8 brothers, who was introduced back in the ol' pre-Josh-and-his-ruins-everything-penis 19 Kids and Counting days, so when I heard she was courting, I nearly flipped my shit. Even in ARKANSAS, 12 year olds can't get legally married, can they? Of course, Joy actually turned 19 recently, so she's four years older than Maranatha. Still though...
Anyway, whatever, you don't care, I'll be spending all day tomorrow on Free Jinger.
