Jill and Jessa Counting on--part 3

[nst]

8 hours ago, Mothership said:

Jessa does mock Jill in a TH moment about Jill being gushy/silly about everything Derek (back when they were skipping and he was in Nepal).  What really seems nasty about it--although funny and spot on at the same time, is that while Jill is packing and reading a note from Derek, Jessa tells her how happy she is about her impending visit to see/meet him.

I would have expected my daughters to opening tease each other about something like that.  Of course, they didn't have the opportunity to publicly mock in a TH!

 

That scene is the same as when Jill wrote jessa an open letter about motherhood.

its all about appearances. Nothing honest just calculated so they get into heaven and look good.

[season of life]

I saw just a promo for the newest episode of the show on TV. Boy, those TLC folk are really screening the anti-Duggar comments, aren't they? 19 Kids and Counting didn't try in the slightest to hide that the girls do all the domestic work whereas Counting On is showing the older girls stepping into "masculine" roles. It's as if TLC wants to backtrack on one of the qualities that made the Duggar family so famous: their blatant stereotyping of men and women.

[calimojo]

Yes, exactly. They are dying hard to undo the image that they built in that regard and are failing miserably.  The Jana episode reinforced the CinderJana meme more than ever. Showing Jinger with a new 'hobby' of flipping cars surrounded by the boys to make sure the silly girl makes the right choice, us not going to convince anyone with half a brain that Jinger is being allowed to be independent. 

 

The leg humpers as getting more intense because they are trying to deny the obvious to even themselves. They have invested a lot if time and energy ivervthe past year to defend the Duggars and as the emperor's clothing starts to come off they are only going to hump even harder for awhile.  That is typical of people like that. 

[calimojo]

Ugh the editing function isn't working well today. Anyway I was going to add that the rabid Duggar leg humpers are not all that different from the crazy Trump supporters. The more obvious it becomes that he us a terrible person the more intense his core followers become. They have emotionally invested in their relationship with following Trump so they can't psychologically let it go. Trump knows this and has even addressed it when he said he coujkd shoot someone on Fifth avenue andche would still have followers. 

 

The Duggar followers who are still clinging are like that.  More scandals could happen and they will rationalize them away. The only cure for this is is if they continue to be so dull that only those who are bedridden without a remote will watch them. 

[Imagine20]

I'm currently laid up with a very minor back injury (I'll be fine in a few days). I can lay down, pull myself up to a sitting position, and shuffle to the bathroom and back.  My life right now seems like it'd be much more action packed than one of these new Duggar episodes. Add in my two adorable 13 year old cats who do nothing but sleep, snuggle, eat and poop and we might have a real TLC hit on our hands. 

[calimojo]

OK I am typing on a very small tablet causing lots oh mistakes. I can't seem to edit so please give me grace for typos and grammar. 

[Carol]

1 hour ago, season of life said:

I saw just a promo for the newest episode of the show on TV. Boy, those TLC folk are really screening the anti-Duggar comments, aren't they? 19 Kids and Counting didn't try in the slightest to hide that the girls do all the domestic work whereas Counting On is showing the older girls stepping into "masculine" roles. It's as if TLC wants to backtrack on one of the qualities that made the Duggar family so famous: their blatant stereotyping of men and women.

I read the first sentence and thought it said, "I just saw a porno for the newest episode of the show on TV".  TLC is branching out.

[FundieFarmer]

Ah, ok. Thanks for the elaboration. I see what some of y'all are saying about the ghostwriting.

[Shadoewolf]

Spud didn't look so much like a Duggar when he was first born, but I see a lot of it now.  He just has slightly darker coloring and hair than Izzy.

[missegeno]

36 minutes ago, Shadoewolf said:

Spud didn't look so much like a Duggar when he was first born, but I see a lot of it now.  He just has slightly darker coloring and hair than Izzy.

Whoa, you're right! I hadn't seen it before, then BAM! there it was, in the nicknames video.

[Dandruff]

47 minutes ago, Shadoewolf said:

Spud didn't look so much like a Duggar when he was first born, but I see a lot of it now.  He just has slightly darker coloring and hair than Izzy.

Strong genes, but I think there are also so many Duggars that it's easy to recognize the "look".  He's one cute baby.

The M kids seem to favor Anna.  This seems like a good thing.

[patsymae]

"Jessa was the leader of Jordyn's buddy group. I have never seen a child who looked so neglected."

 

Sorry, want to comment on an amalgam of posts about Jordyn. IIRC, there was an episode where JBoob was left for a while to "babysit" infant Josie and Jordyn. And he talked about how Jordan just loved, loved, loved, to "care for" (not look at or even "play with") Josie. And Jordyn was--maybe 15 or 18 months old? She was put in the role of caretaker (and praised for it) while still a recent toddler.

[MoonFace]

2 hours ago, Shadoewolf said:

Spud didn't look so much like a Duggar when he was first born, but I see a lot of it now.  He just has slightly darker coloring and hair than Izzy.

Hopefully they aren't using self tanner on the kid. 

Oh wait - only Jinger would do that, right? 

[WhyNotJulie]

It's so cute how TLC is trying to make it seem like the J'slaves do "man things" like home improvement and car auctions instead of just being taught to cook, clean and practice their contentment.

My headship doesn't understand how I can stomach reading anything about this family but to me it's like a train wreck... objectively terrible but I just..can't..look away.

[gustava]

6 hours ago, calimojo said:

They are dying hard to undo the image that they built in that regard and are failing miserably.

I know you meant trying hard but dying hard works so much better!!!

[Handmaiden of Dog]

Last night I decided for some dumb reason to watch the first episode.  Gah.  I don't know why I do these things but reading all of your posts made me want to see it for myself.  I made it about 3/4 of the way through before I realized I was torturing myself needlessly.  This show is insanely dull.  Two weeks late to the party but here are my thoughts:

1.) As a voice coach and communications specialist I hate all of their voices.  HAAAAAAATTTTE.  However Jill earns my award for worst speaker of the year with Bin getting a special runner-up medal.  Jill's speaking voice is both high and monotone and every time she opens her mouth I want to fast-forward.  It doesn't help that she has nothing interesting to say. Bin is almost as bad with his stuffed-up nasal drawl. I really can't tell if he is stupidly stupid or if he just sounds that way.

2.) You know they could become the food porn guys if only they didn't buy all of their food ready made.  I'm sure there were plenty of people at home drooling as they saw these young women just throw tons of food into their carts with apparently no thought as to cost.  Pies?  Sure!  Grab a few.  Butter?  Yes 6 or 8 pounds.  Turkeys, bread, bags of corn.  Just keep it coming. Unfortunately then they go home and talk about making mashed potatoes out of a box and glop a can of mushroom soup on to the canned green beans. So more like cafeteria food than home cooked meals-- hardly the stuff of dreams.

3.)  Every time Jessa and Bin made some remark about how Spurgeon was completely their responsibility, I wanted to throw something at the TV.  No shit, Sherlock.  Were we supposed to be sympathetic to Jessa and Bin?  Because I could only wonder why she couldn't see how much work was involved in raising a child when she herself grew up in the TTH and was a child buddy from an early age.  Or was this just a line of bullshit?  So many times with the Duggars I have to ask myself, ignorance or bullshit?

4.)  The Duggar girls are going to have to carry the show, there is just no way to make the Duggar guys attractive enough for TV. The boys may be nice but they are a sad combination of homely and dull.

5.) Finally I feel a bit mean for saying this but while I commend her speaking from the heart, I couldn't stand to watch Anna's twitchy face.  She squinches her face and makes her eyes go big and twists her lips to the side to the point where it makes my skin crawl. I think she is brimming with raw emotion but tries to bottle most of her bad feelings up because that is what women in her religion have to do.  The result is that these thoughts are trying to escape and she is forcing them back down and she ends up looking like an actress in a melodrama. I wish she would get therapy but she won't which makes me feel bad.  The result is I would rather not watch her at all.

[lascuba]

14 hours ago, Mercer said:

This. I would expect Jessa to claim authorship of her portion of the ghostwritten book. That's normal. What's not normal is claiming being an author as her career on the basis of a book someone else wrote for them.

It's sort of like... I'm not going to tell you that you didn't really climb a mountain because you drove part of the way in your car. Ultimately what matters is you got to the summit somehow. However, if you then turn around and use that experience as the basis for claiming to be a professional mountaineer, I'm going to look askance at you a little, you know?

I also don't get why it seems so hard for Jessa to admit that she's a homemaker as her primary profession. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Using the flimsiest of credentials to try to claim to be something else kind of makes it seem like Jessa thinks there is something wrong with it.

It's especially striking because according to the rules of her belief system and the family in which she grew up, homemaker is the only thing she can be. I think Jessa more than most of them is highly sensitive to criticism of the family. Or maybe it's not upsetting to her so much as she thinks it's better PR for the show to claim a skill and career outside the home. I go back and forth on whether Jessa seriously gets her back up over criticism of her and her family or if she's just trying (and failing) to be shrewd about her public image. 

Speaking of Jessa, the other day my cousin mentioned having caught an episode of Counting On. She's semi-familiar with the family and was an occasional watcher of the old show, but she in no way follows them, and while she knows better than to believe the crap they peddle she doesn't know the extent of their lies and manipulations. She tends to just view them as an oddity like any other "reality" show (basically, a soap opera with even worse writing and acting). She said that it seemed to her that Ben ("the husband of the really pretty one") held back a lot...that he seemed to know that his wife and her family were nuts but kept his opinions to himself. I haven't watched Counting On yet, and I found that take from someone who doesn't really know much about the family interesting. My biases being what they are, I find it hard to believe that that would be the case with Ben. What do you guys think? Did Ben look like he was biting his tongue at some points, or was it his typical on-screen awkwardness?

[Handmaiden of Dog]

Oh forgot the part that made me laugh outloud-- when Bin said Jessa knew how to make couscous.  There is  nothing as easy to make as couscous, it is easier to make than eggs because with eggs you have to judge when they are done cooking.  If you have never made couscous here is how you make the boxed kind:  measure water, add a bit of butter or oil, bring it to boil, stir in the couscous and remove from heat. 5 minutes later it is done.  If you know how to brew up tea, then you know how to make couscous. I suppose opening a container of yogurt is easier but not by much.

I don't think Bin is self-aware enough to know what exactly is wrong with his new family but like any wild creature he senses something is wrong. My guess is that these days he is praying a lot to be more accepting of the way things are and to ask God for guidance.  I picture him child-like, wailing "What should I doooooo?" I think he is bored, I think he is dismayed, I think he is trying to figure how to make his future mark on the world while being a good husband and father.

[Dandruff]

35 minutes ago, Handmaiden of Dog said:

Oh forgot the part that made me laugh outloud-- when Bin said Jessa knew how to make couscous.  There is  nothing as easy to make as couscous, it is easier to make than eggs because with eggs you have to judge when they are done cooking.  If you have never made couscous here is how you make the boxed kind:  measure water, add a bit of butter or oil, bring it to boil, stir in the couscous and remove from heat. 5 minutes later it is done.  If you know how to brew up tea, then you know how to make couscous. I suppose opening a container of yogurt is easier but not by much.

I don't think Bin is self-aware enough to know what exactly is wrong with his new family but like any wild creature he senses something is wrong. My guess is that these days he is praying a lot to be more accepting of the way things are and to ask God for guidance.  I picture him child-like, wailing "What should I doooooo?" I think he is bored, I think he is dismayed, I think he is trying to figure how to make his future mark on the world while being a good husband and father.

I'd be surprised if either of them can spell couscous.

Agree that Ben doesn't seem like a happy young man.  Wouldn't surprise me if TLC asked him to keep his mouth shut (if I was TLC, I would).  In addition, I suspect Jessa is making him pay daily, with interest, for the name Spurgeon.  Her family has probably mangled the pronunciation hundreds of times already, and I'll bet many of the mistakes are an improvement.

I really hope he ends up being called Elliot.  It's a nice name - not at all reminiscent of fish or bodily fluids.  Poor baby.

[EmCatlyn]

2 hours ago, Dandruff said:

I'd be surprised if either of them can spell couscous.

Agree that Ben doesn't seem like a happy young man.  Wouldn't surprise me if TLC asked him to keep his mouth shut (if I was TLC, I would).  In addition, I suspect Jessa is making him pay daily, with interest, for the name Spurgeon.  Her family has probably mangled the pronunciation hundreds of times already, and I'll bet many of the mistakes are an improvement.

I really hope he ends up being called Elliot.  It's a nice name - not at all reminiscent of fish or bodily fluids.  Poor baby.

The other day I looked for some "famous Baptist Preachers/Theologians" with names worse than Spurgeon so that I could make a comment here about "This is what Seewald child 2 might be named."   I discovered that there are no worse named.  Yes, there is an Obadiah, and one of the founders of the General Baptists was surnamed Helwys, but those are almost nice names compared to Spurgeon.  What have they don to that poor child?

[nst]

3 hours ago, lascuba said:

It's especially striking because according to the rules of her belief system and the family in which she grew up, homemaker is the only thing she can be. I think Jessa more than most of them is highly sensitive to criticism of the family. Or maybe it's not upsetting to her so much as she thinks it's better PR for the show to claim a skill and career outside the home. I go back and forth on whether Jessa seriously gets her back up over criticism of her and her family or if she's just trying (and failing) to be shrewd about her public image. 

Speaking of Jessa, the other day my cousin mentioned having caught an episode of Counting On. She's semi-familiar with the family and was an occasional watcher of the old show, but she in no way follows them, and while she knows better than to believe the crap they peddle she doesn't know the extent of their lies and manipulations. She tends to just view them as an oddity like any other "reality" show (basically, a soap opera with even worse writing and acting). She said that it seemed to her that Ben ("the husband of the really pretty one") held back a lot...that he seemed to know that his wife and her family were nuts but kept his opinions to himself. I haven't watched Counting On yet, and I found that take from someone who doesn't really know much about the family interesting. My biases being what they are, I find it hard to believe that that would be the case with Ben. What do you guys think? Did Ben look like he was biting his tongue at some points, or was it his typical on-screen awkwardness?

I think both.  I think Ben is biting his tongue or being told to not talk. I can't decide which all the time. 

Imo he wasn't awkward during the courtship in the TH's - he was more demonstrative towards Jessa and said more - now I think because the sex chemistry has worn off - he doesn't have to impress her anymore - he has her 

and he is frankly not that interesting and it's become more apparent

[OrchidBlossom]

19 minutes ago, nst said:

I think both.  I think Ben is biting his tongue or being told to not talk. I can't decide which all the time. 

Imo he wasn't awkward during the courtship in the TH's - he was more demonstrative towards Jessa and said more - now I think because the sex chemistry has worn off - he doesn't have to impress her anymore - he has her 

and he is frankly not that interesting and it's become more apparent

Yeah I think that's a major problem with fundie husbands, a lot of them just want to acquire a pretty wife and they put all this effort into it, but then once they are married it's like whatever, they have her, no more effort needed.

[nst]

1 minute ago, OrchidBlossom said:

Yeah I think that's a major problem with fundie husbands, a lot of them just want to acquire a pretty wife and they put all this effort into it, but then once they are married it's like whatever, they have her, no more effort needed.

and here we all thought it was Ben who was pushing to be on tv 

he probably wants it to a certain degree -but the other degree i doubt it - and it's obvious 

and pickles posted from the seewalds blog a picture that Jessa posted in her bedroom - she is lying on the bed with spud and you see all the crap that is in the room.

she obviously doesn't want to clean 

someone hire her a housekeeper 

[OrchidBlossom]

Just now, nst said:

and here we all thought it was Ben who was pushing to be on tv 

he probably wants it to a certain degree -but the other degree i doubt it - and it's obvious 

and pickles posted from the seewalds blog a picture that Jessa posted in her bedroom - she is lying on the bed with spud and you see all the crap that is in the room.

she obviously doesn't want to clean 

someone hire her a housekeeper 

Someone hire her and Bin a career counselor! 

Wait can you imagine Jessa trying to hire a housekeeper like "I can see her knees" "she was wearing pants" "she swore three days ago" "didn't compliment me once throughout the whole interview" "she didn't coo over Sturgeon enough" or even the horror of a male housekeeper!

[nst]

I just realized something good - Spud now covers #theedgypreacher's written shirts

when he holds him