Law and Order: Duggars

[EmmieJ]

My mum grew up thinking her youngest aunt was the youngest of her grandparents large family.  Turns out she was the illegitimate child of one of the older daughters.  The identity of the mother was never confirmed, although everyone thinks they know which one it was.  It was a really sad story actually, and I suspect it happened a lot years ago - this was in the 1940s.  These days there's no major stigma on illegitimacy in normal society, but in a fundie family, I can see this still happening.

I had the strange experience of meeting a family who did this in "modern times."  The parents were clients at the firm I was working for.  They came in one day with their two daughters; one about 19 or so and the other a little girl of about 3.  After they left, my boss told me that the little girl was actually their grand-daughter, but they were raising her as their own (telling the little girl they were her mom and dad).  At some point, I am sure this girl will find out the truth, and I cannot imagine what thoughts and feelings this will cause her.  I could not believe in this day and age, that would still happen.

[refugee]

I have an embarrassing dyslexic swap that I can't seem to shake. Whenever I try to say "purity ball" it comes out "puberty ball".

[FlamingFundie]

Ah, we're really into Grimm here. Such a good show with beautiful filming. Love. It.

OMG, I LOVED GRIMM when it first came out. Unfortunetly, we don't pay for TV (over the air antennae -- we are working on being debt free within the next two years) so sometimes the signal would be bad during storms and I missed an episode in the early part of the second season. My legit-diagnosed OCD won't allow me to watch any series that has to run in sequential order to make any real sense if I miss an episode -- I literally HAVE to watch them all in order or else I have to stop watching the series. Frustrating as hell. I can't wait til I can save up enough in my fun money to just buy the series on DVD and binge watch it!!

[Bad Wolf]

Love Grimm, too. Haven't watched SVU yet. Recorded it, but headship wants to watch too, and he won't be home until this evening. I am being sooooo patient

[polecat]

I think this kind of thing happens more often than we think. Marriage can be used to cover a multitude of sins.

I could tell a handful of stories from my own family background -- a 14 yo pregnant by an adult married man (with kids!). He left his wife for her (a child), and they left the baby with her parents to raise while "running away" together. There was no happily ever after there, but they did end up bringing quite a few more kids into the world before all was said and done. Their kids were shocked to find out *as adults* their aunt was really their big sister and were even more shocked to find out they had a whole second set of siblings. In another situation, a teen got pregnant (father known or unknown -- no clue), and her parents didn't even ask what she wanted -- just took the baby and raised him as theirs. He never even knew his big sister was his mom -- his kids found out, again, as adults, after he died. Then two cases of teen girls who got pregnant by adult men and pushed into marrying them to make things nice and legal, I suppose. 

Sometimes I wonder if everyone's family trees are a little twisted and bent, but some secrets are kept better hidden than others. On the bright side, none of this stuff is going on in the youngest generation. People have kids or not, marry or not, etc. There is no hidden stuff. For all the hand-wringing about shacking up and "open sin," at least today we don't have horrible entanglements in the family tree and ugly stories just waiting beneath the surface.

 

[PartriarchydefyinValkarie]

Oh man, I kept going "Nah, Duggars wouldn't do that." the entire time.

J'chelle wouldn't stand up for her daughters like that. 

Daughter's purity ball dress was too low cut.

The Duggars would NEVER say "I don't care about the show."

I kind of wish they would've thrown out the words "precious" and "layed it on my heart." and "purposed to.."

Overall, I liked it. I liked that the victims got justice in the end and the mother agreed to testify. I only wish real fundie womens' parents would back them like that if they were in that position.

 

  Yes, but at least they fit in 'Its God's will." "Religious persecution." Also thought the eldest looked like Jana.

[Kate11]

I'm watching the episode online right now!

[Jana814]

I had the strange experience of meeting a family who did this in "modern times."  The parents were clients at the firm I was working for.  They came in one day with their two daughters; one about 19 or so and the other a little girl of about 3.  After they left, my boss told me that the little girl was actually their grand-daughter, but they were raising her as their own (telling the little girl they were her mom and dad).  At some point, I am sure this girl will find out the truth, and I cannot imagine what thoughts and feelings this will cause her.  I could not believe in this day and age, that would still happen.

I can't imagine that happened how a days either. 

[ElegantMajesticPearls]

Are the court papers readily available online? I only saw newspaper articles?

https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/54a63b193004de94513db1b2

[applejack]

I hadn't watched SVU in years, and only started again because Mini Dodds is played by one of my favorite Broadway actors and I gotta support him, and I loved this episode.

I hate that there even was a scandal for the Duggar girls to have to have lived through, but since there was, I wish it had played out more like this, with a caring mother who apologized for not protecting her children better. I definitely agree with whoever said that was the writers room's little jab at Michelle by going "SEE? THIS is what you should have done."

[RosyDaisy]

One thing, why was the character Summer not used more to build up to the reveal that she was Tate's mother and also fathered by the pastor?

[doubleT]

I enjoyed it.

They seem to hit on a lot "Duggarism's". 

[Grace]

I heard a story from an acquaintance once about her dad. Apparently he was dating a girl in the 70's or 80's and her parents were SUPER nice to him and pushing marriage hard. Offering a job and land and a house if/when they got married. They broke up and he found out that her toddler sister was really her kid and her parents were going to spring it on him after the wedding and send the kid to live with her real mommy and new daddy! O_o

[Hermen-uetics]

I liked how SVU showed how damaging it is when a community protects it own.  And how they showed that the leadership in the church was seriously flawed, more than the child abuser pastor but the senior leadership and elders too.  I thought it was a good dig at isolating evangelicals, Gothard and the ATI movement.

The writers did their research, so many subtle similarities to the Duggars like the older son getting sent away to an Alert type camp, I may rewatch to see how many I can catch.

[Jana814]

I heard a story from an acquaintance once about her dad. Apparently he was dating a girl in the 70's or 80's and her parents were SUPER nice to him and pushing marriage hard. Offering a job and land and a house if/when they got married. They broke up and he found out that her toddler sister was really her kid and her parents were going to spring it on him after the wedding and send the kid to live with her real mommy and new daddy! O_o

What a story!!  

[Paperplate]

My two cents:

I thought FakeBob and FakeMichelle talked too coherently. They were able to string more than two words together. Not very Duggar-like.

The above-the-knee skirts on the twin girls were unrealistic. So was Lane's ball dress. Cleavage at a purity ball? They did say it was the dress that Summer and Tymber wore as well. These two were slimmer and less well endowed, and therefore better covered by the dress, but still ... Real fundies would have added a fugly modesty panel to that dress for Lane.

 

The whole thing felt a bit rushed to me too, but still interesting.

I hope some people learnt something about what toxic beliefs can do.

 

And lastly: Where fundies get the ideas for their kids' names:

[Karma]

https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/54a63b193004de94513db1b2

Thankyou for the link.  I wonder what chance these teenagers have of leading normal adult lives after growing  up in such a warped, incestuous family.   Scary that the family could live like this for so long.

[Haystack]

And what was the whole point of the pregnant detective in the hospital scene?  I know they want to do character development, but it seemed like they needed 3 minutes more, so they stuck her in the hospital for  a scene.

Rawlings is a key player. She's been in the hospital oreviously. After last night I'm wondering if something happens to the baby. 

Last night was good but not as much Duggar as I expected. 

 

I miss Benson and Stabler. Olivia has changed so much over the years. 

[Cleopatra7]

My two cents:

I thought FakeBob and FakeMichelle talked too coherently. They were able to string more than two words together. Not very Duggar-like.

The above-the-knee skirts on the twin girls were unrealistic. So was Lane's ball dress. Cleavage at a purity ball? They did say it was the dress that Summer and Tymber wore as well. These two were slimmer and less well endowed, and therefore better covered by the dress, but still ... Real fundies would have added a fugly modesty panel to that dress for Lane.

 

The whole thing felt a bit rushed to me too, but still interesting.

I hope some people learnt something about what toxic beliefs can do.

 

And lastly: Where fundies get the ideas for their kids' names:

Since Law and Order: SVU is a scripted TV show with real actors, I don't think they could have emulated the Duggars' poor enunciation without derailing the entire show. Either that, or they'd be accused of making fun of the Duggars based on their being Southern as opposed to wanting to critique their ideology. Plus, the Bakers were from upstate New York as I recall, and would sound completely different than the Arkansas Duggars anyway.

[nomoxian]

At 7:45 they actually say "Duggars" 

[Bad Wolf]

Headship got home and we watched it while eating dinner. Vegan shepherd's pie, not ttc. Headship only knows about Duggars through news, and kept saying OMG it's the Duggars. Hilarious. Had to keep pausing to explain virtue balls, etc. On the whole, I think it was pretty good.

[ClaraOswin]

I hadn't seen this preview yet....

http://www.inquisitr.com/2539478/duggar-inspired-law-order-svu-episode-preview-shows-daughter-doing-something-duggar-girls-arent-allowed-to-do-video/

I love the Jana character getting yelled at for not watching the toddler. And the Jim Bob guy is pretty creepy. The married couple kissing is a pretty good Anna/Josh (though in this case, the girl is the Duggar character.)

I still don't think they'll have the brother be the father. I think it's going to be the pastor. But maybe it's just because that actor was a 'bad guy' on another show I watched.

Woohoo! I was right.

It was a decent episode. I agree with others that it felt rushed. 

Loved them holding hands in NYC with the camera going around. Hilarious!

[prayawaythefundie]

I'm watching the episode online right now!

Where? Can't find it on youtube yet

[SilverBeach]

I'm sorry, this is just WRONG! And I hope the Duggars sue the pants off LAW & ORDER.

This is exploitation of the worst kind. This show did this about a murder in NY, too. It was still very fresh on all our minds,the gruesomeness, the grief, we lived it every day. And L&O dragged it all up again before the girl was cold in her grave. Plus, they screw  w/details & ppl watching will take it as fact. It's just wrong.

I do not understand your righteous anger. Its a TV show, not a documentary. You must have never seen any version of the Law and Order franchise during the last 20 years, many of which were inspired by real events.

[SilverBeach]

Loved this episode! Not JB's hair was appropriately stiff, Not Michelle's voice was appropriately babyish, and Not Josh was appropriately creepy. Not Jana was also appropriately submissive. And the whole Gothard vibe was captured well. And the names! lolol