Josiah Duggar Courting - Part 2

[singsingsing]

You never even read back in the thread. Someone asked what the height of fashion was in Europe. Right now it's the Duchess and her styling of her daughter's christening. So I said THIS (and insert photo).

Nobody's wearing maxi skirts in Pembrokeshire. And several others have said there have been no sightings in their area in the US and Germany.

I think maxi skirts are a regional trend depending on weather. Half the US seems to be in drought, and half is flooding. Who the hell wants to wear a long skirt when it's humid, rainy and likely you'll be dragging a wet rag around your ankles into your car and house?

Once again, in the past six weeks I was in New York, New Jersey, all across the Midwest and back, then to London and through UK on the streets and in airports. I never once saw a maxi skirt.

IF i saw a group of girls in maxi skirts, I'd figure they were fundies for sure.

Maxi skirt sighting in Ohio:

Dude, I don't know what to tell you. I live here and I see women wearing maxi skirts/dresses all the time. Every single day. Multiple times a day. None of them are fundies. There are no Christian fundamentalists (or if there are, they're like 0.000000001% of the population) where I live. I live in the Midwest. I'm going to guess that during your six weeks of travel you were not on the lookout/keeping a running tally of the girls you saw in maxi dresses. But you came to the U.S. for six weeks so I guess you must be right. :roll:

[greycat]

I see more maxi dresses with crazy patterns then I do skirts where I live, but I do see both. I like them and own a maxi dress myself and trust me I am soooooo far from being fundie.

All the fundie women in my area oddly enough wear strictly jean and khaki skirts. I think they are Pentecostals where they have very high up hair in the front and a braid-ish type style in the back.

I hope Josiah and Marjorie go fundie lite at the least. They seem like they both have so much ambitions and dreams I would hate to see that their marriage be the height of their life. I want them to feed off each other and LIVE!!

[FoxyMoxie]

It really is astounding to come back to the USA and right there in the airport one sees so much obesity that simply doesn't exist in other places. We are so addicted to our sugary pre-packaged easy food it's literally killing us. The only places with comparable levels of obesity are in the Middle East.

Orrrr how about food deserts exist in the US much more than in Europe (for example) and we stop shaming people for being obese. Being fat is not a moral failing.

[Handmaiden of Dog]

Europeans shouldn't get too complacent-- obesity is on the rise in Europe and you will soon catch up to us. I think I heard on the BBC News Quiz recently that British children were the most overweight in the EU. I think it is just the availability of food myself-- the thousands of different flavors and snacks and convenience foods that are introduced every year all with the intention of enticing you to eat more is a terrible byproduct of global capitalism. Food is everywhere you look and this constant exposure to a variety of foodstuffs increases appetite.

[Mela99]

I agree that Boob surely doesn't want anymore trouble in Duggarland. But if the girl breaks if off, what can he do?

I wouldn't be surprised if they broke up, they are teenagers for heavens sake. Pressuring people into stupid "courtships" in order to avoid casual dating can only do so much.

Maybe her family got a glimpse behind the scenes and realized the dangers of the Duggar cult? Because I doubt that the family is handling the scandal fallout well, and that is probably pretty off-putting, even for fellow fundies.

Bribe Marjorie with a house or a Euro honeymoon? Wasn't there a rumor that Joe Kennedy offered Jackie money to stay married to JFK when he was starting out in politics and she was already tired of him fucking around?

[FreeCalifornia]

Reporting from Raleigh: No maxis to be seen in this horrible, humid weather. I drive past several colleges (Peace, Meredith, NC State) and it is not a look that has caught on here.

I think a lot of it depends on the various communities (not locations, but groups of people) you are around.

I'm in Raleigh and see women (including myself) in them all the time.

Not to say I'm fashion forward as I'm not in the least!

I wouldn't be spotted on a college campus or in a major shopping center except for rare occasion.

I think it has less to do with the location and more to do with the crowds one is around in that location.

Overall I agree it's not a big trend- I'm just pointing out it is around.

I really wonder what Josiah would think of all this fashion debate in his courting thread?

Edited to fix formatting.

[Ofglen]

It's hot and humid as hell here. The only people I see wearing maxi skirts/dresses are fundies. By the way, I hate hats. No woman looks good in those butt ugly hats, not even the Dutchess of Cambridge. Yeah, I'm showing my American arrogance.

Living in Georgia right now. I wear mostly dresses and leggings. I have quite a few maxi dresses that i've been wearing frequently, they all have spaghetti straps up top and are cotton + fairly lightweight. Yeah, they might be a little cooler if they were shorter, but i'm inside most of the time so it doesn't really matter. If I'm at home and hanging outside on the back deck i'll change into exercise shorts and a tank.

Also, to whoever said they didn't see any maxi dresses in the midwest...what?? I live in Ohio most of the time and uhmmmm.... you didn't look hard enough.

[RosyDaisy]

I rarely stick up for the US in anything (except women's soccer!), but want to point out that it's a pretty undisputed fact that Los Angeles is the fashion capital for the denim industry - it was born here and leading brands are still based here and some of them even made here. End rant :D

There are huge disparities in US fashion, more so than in other countries. I've lived in several different regions of the US and in Europe, and in my experience, big US cities have more similarities in fashion to global cities than they do the rest of the US. I'm a long-time online shopper and it's only in recent years that retailers have offered affordable international shipping, and I've noticed major blending of global style since then as everything becomes more accessible to everyone. Yet somehow, the Midwest/South of the US (I sincerely love you all, but you are a different world) feels more foreign to me than London/Sydney/Barcelona based on fashion and trends, and remain on a different page style-wise. The international high-fashion brands have made it to the big cities here, but not even close to every state or region. I see all the input from others Americans here and I think it just really depends on where you live. This country is HUGE and reeeeally different from state to state - especially when you compare the coasts (read: more diversity and more foreigners) with the middle.

With all of that being said - the maxi skirt/dress trend is definitely a thing, but I think the difference is the materials and the styling. Wearing a long dress in a breezy fabric with your shoulders showing looks a lot more normal than a maxi skirt with frumpy button up short sleeve shirt WITH another t-shirt underneath for *modesty* - the Duggar uniform would stand out as fundie even in the tiny cow town I grew up in. The Duggar girls have done an impressive job of trying to modernize their dress while sticking to their standards - but the fact that they travel in packs doesn't help. If you see a group of girls, and a few of them are in maxi skirts, you wouldn't think much of it. When you see 7 of them in slight variations of the same outfit, it looks more like a uniform (especially the long denim skirts - just no).

Sorry for all the words. I've been fascinated by clothing/ways of dressing my whole life and love observing these things. I also work from home and Friday afternoons involve wine. 8-)

My jeans of choice are Wrangler, mostly made in Hackleburg, Alabama. That factory was completely destroyed by a tornado on April 27, 2011. Pairs of jeans were found hundreds of miles away.

[Ofglen]

It is.

What's with people pretending they're concerned for the health of fat people when really they just don't want to look at them?? :evil:

[ClaraOswin]

You never even read back in the thread. Someone asked what the height of fashion was in Europe. Right now it's the Duchess and her styling of her daughter's christening. So I said THIS (and insert photo).

Nobody's wearing maxi skirts in Pembrokeshire. And several others have said there have been no sightings in their area in the US and Germany.

I think maxi skirts are a regional trend depending on weather. Half the US seems to be in drought, and half is flooding. Who the hell wants to wear a long skirt when it's humid, rainy and likely you'll be dragging a wet rag around your ankles into your car and house?

Once again, in the past six weeks I was in New York, New Jersey, all across the Midwest and back, then to London and through UK on the streets and in airports. I never once saw a maxi skirt.

IF i saw a group of girls in maxi skirts, I'd figure they were fundies for sure.

Maxi skirt sighting in Ohio:

All across the midwest, eh? I thought you only listed 2 sort of midwestern cities before.

That picture...they look like regular people to me. Where I live, tons of people dress just like that. And I don't really think I'm in a high fundie area (never met one that I know of.) I'm in Nebraska if that matters at all.

[bal maiden]

This is what I want to know too. I am American but I live in the Netherlands right now and people here UNEQUIVOCALLY dress in the ugliest clothes I have ever seen.

Yup! Things I don't miss since leaving the Netherlands: Albert Heijn and white leggings! http://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/2013/06 ... e-legging/

Anyway, I am European, not fundie, and live in jersey skirts and Birkenstocks. Wouldn't be caught dead in those benefit scroungers' Royals' outfits... :shrug:

[Rescuejosiah]

I really wish people could stick to the topic. I come here to see how Josiah is doing with his courtship and get pages of dress comments. I can see it going off topic sometimes but there are other threads in the community discussion where you can post all you want on dresses. I am interested in the Duggars and curious if one is going to leave. I have been coming to this site forever but don't post much.

[albanuadh_1]

I come here to see how Josiah is doing with his courtship and get pages of dress comments

But then there wouldn't be any one upmanship!! :)

[Librul]

I really wish people could stick to the topic. I come here to see how Josiah is doing with his courtship and get pages of dress comments. I can see it going off topic sometimes but there are other threads in the community discussion where you can post all you want on dresses. I am interested in the Duggars and curious if one is going to leave. I have been coming to this site forever but don't post much.

If you have any updates or information on Josiah's courtship, then by all means post it. When there's information about that, the thread will get back on track on its own.

[chris]

On Jessa's instagram.....instagram.com/p/4_4yTCjfnS/

Would that be Marjorie on Jinger's left? The hair looks too dark to be Jessa or Jana; plus, there is a ring on her left hand!!

[ClaraOswin]

I really wish people could stick to the topic. I come here to see how Josiah is doing with his courtship and get pages of dress comments. I can see it going off topic sometimes but there are other threads in the community discussion where you can post all you want on dresses. I am interested in the Duggars and curious if one is going to leave. I have been coming to this site forever but don't post much.

If you've been coming here forever then you'd know that thread drift is allowed here. I HAVEN'T been here forever and even I know this.

[ClaraOswin]

On Jessa's instagram.....instagram.com/p/4_4yTCjfnS/

Would that be Marjorie on Jinger's left? The hair looks too dark to be Jessa or Jana; plus, there is a ring on her left hand!!

I don't know. Kind of looks like Jana to me. And it could be a promise ring? I don't know though. Hard to tell who it is since so many of them have the same damn hairstyle.

[chris]

I don't know. Kind of looks like Jana to me. And it could be a promise ring? I don't know though. Hard to tell who it is since so many of them have the same damn hairstyle.

Do people wear promise rings on the ring finger on their left hand? I honestly don't know.

Im fairly certain that Jana isn't in that picture. In the Dillard's goodbye video her hair is a shade of lighter brown than Joy's hair

[Closed Womb]

I don't know. Kind of looks like Jana to me. And it could be a promise ring? I don't know though. Hard to tell who it is since so many of them have the same damn hairstyle.

Is a promise ring the same thing as a purity ring? When I was a kid, a promise ring was a pre-engagement ring, but, in that culture, it might mean a promise to repress normal human desires.

[batuityma]

I really wish people could stick to the topic. I come here to see how Josiah is doing with his courtship and get pages of dress comments. I can see it going off topic sometimes but there are other threads in the community discussion where you can post all you want on dresses. I am interested in the Duggars and curious if one is going to leave. I have been coming to this site forever but don't post much.

But FJ wouldn't be FJ without randomly wandering thread drift!

I live an a large midwestern US metropolitan area. I saw TONS of women in maxis in the spring. But now that it's hot, most women are in shorts or short skirts. However, retailers are starting to stock fall lines and now huge sections of maxi skirts/dresses are back in the department stores.

The people that I see in maxis most often are not fundie types at all. They are usually young hipsters or middle-aged, upper-class fashion conscious women. The exception (although not Christian fundie) would be Somali Muslims. We have the largest concentration of Somali-Americans in the country here. I see Somali Muslim women on a regular basis and, almost without fail, they are wearing very brightly colored and patterned maxis.

And to take the thread drift further...

I find it interesting to see the way Somali-American Muslims dress compared to the Muslims of different geographical descent. The Somali women in my area seem to dress more conservatively in terms of "body coverage" yet they wear very bright colors and loud patterns.

The Muslim women of Middle Eastern descent that live here tend to wear typical "western-world" clothing (often pants) with a only a traditional, solid colored gray or black hijab that would indicate their faith. Their clothing choices seem to be more "modern" and less conservative in certain ways (pants, more exposed skin, relatively more form-fitting outfits). However they seem to choose very understated, muted solid colors as opposed to the Somalis who I often see in layers of vibrant colors and mixed patterns. This seems to be a reflection of the different influence of African cultures vs (Asian) Middle Eastern cultures. Way off topic but it is something I've thought about since I've noticed the maxi skirt trend explode here and how the local Somali community embraced it.

***Back on topic, purity rings are very common in the Gothard world. I think all of the older Duggar girls wear them (or wore them before marriage). I've seen them worn on either hand. A ring on Marjorie's left hand doesn't necessarily mean engagement.***

[SpoonfulOSugar]

The issue with dresses is whether maxi dresses and skirts are a uniquely fundie uniform. I don't think it's that big of a drift, to be honest. It's not as if Marj has started wearing a scarlet F on her striped maxi skirt.

But, just to illustrate the point that many women are wearing them:

Here's a Not-Fundie, trend setter (although that is a whole different debate and can of worms), celebrity of sorts wearing a maxi dress in LONDON:

[MatthewDuggar]

Not one but TWO iPhones??? I better start paying more attention to these trends!

[lostfemme]

What's with people pretending they're concerned for the health of fat people when really they just don't want to look at them?? :evil:

Well, it is about health and comfort, at least for me. The issue of looking at fat people doesn't apply here, since I've attended life drawing studios since I was 18 and seen plenty of fat people naked. There is a beauty to obese women, in particular, which I could describe to you in detail or you can just trust me, they are highly sought after for life drawing. There ain't no fat shaming in studios! Younger artists learn quickly that we are lucky to get them.

[bTW, I have a fantasy about introducing Jinger or Josiah to a real artists studios and letting them play with all the materials and equipment to their heart's desire.]

Noticing the levels of obesity in the US is more about about shaming the culture than individuals. If the US is all about easy access to fulfilling the broadest, basest, desires, the result is that the culture is killing us in many, many different ways, not just obesity.

[halcionne]

On Jessa's instagram.....instagram.com/p/4_4yTCjfnS/

Would that be Marjorie on Jinger's left? The hair looks too dark to be Jessa or Jana; plus, there is a ring on her left hand!!

That looks like Jessa in the striped top and Jinger in the red/pink top with gray sweater to me.

[awkwardblackchick]

On Jessa's instagram.....instagram.com/p/4_4yTCjfnS/

Would that be Marjorie on Jinger's left? The hair looks too dark to be Jessa or Jana; plus, there is a ring on her left hand!!

Thats just an old picture in a different angle. See?

instagram.com/p/26kYzduOla/?taken-by=jingernicoleduggar