Another Duggar Courting - Joy and Austin, Part 2

[Destiny]

Continued from here.

[Jennifer Hart]

As soon as I saw the picture, I remembered the strictest parents episode. That family is very rigid. It's sad seeing Joy grow up to be a Stepford wife. I loved her relationship with Amy but I'm sure that influence is over.

[Mrs. Figg]

Anyway.... I think he has an IG @austin4site but it's private. Followed by legit Duggars.

[WeddingFlipFlops]

Watching the World's Strictest parents... I feel so badly for Joy... the father is something else... Just like Jimbob. Joy is doomed =(

[hand holder]

I feel for Jana, if she too wishes she were courting. If I were her, I wouldn't be. But we simply do not know...and Joy has at least known this boy for 15 years so that should mean they're not just being rushed into something for the sake of the show. They could have gotten away with being just 'family friends' for a looong long time before an official courtship was revealed. 

[Kira]

1. We bring up Austin's name every time there is a rumor that a Duggar is courting.  Also, don't the Forsyths live in Arkansas?

2. "Joy is pulling a Alyssa Bates"  Last time I checked Alyssa will have two kids before she's 23. BTW , Alyssa Bates is not the only fundie to get married at 19. A few have 5+ kids

3. I agree with the poster that said the Duggar kids aren't unhappy about their lives at the TTH. Joy Anna is not escaping. I do think most of the Duggar kids will become "fundie-lite" (I hate that term)

 

 

[Tangy Bee]

Ok I'm back. Been trying to be more positive about this relationship. Trust me when I say it has been VERY difficult. It sounds like Joy & Austin might actually "really" know each other if they have been friends since childhood. I don't think her sisters can say that about their husbands. 

[Suz8710]

They both look so young but from what l saw in the video & know of the family, this doesn't appear to be a Ben & Jeremy situation. While I believe they do love their wives, I've always felt those two came out of the woodwork, in part entralled by the cameras and what it could do for them. Possibly Derick too.

It's kind of funny, it seems like Joy picked someone with more of an "Anna" type background than any of the guys her sisters chose. 

 

[feministxtian]

I can see where living at/near the camp would work for Joy...she seems still very outdoorsy. I do think she's WAY too young, but she's known this young man for a long time, they've sort of grown up together. 

But...now Jana is stuck being the one and only "sister-mom" left at home. Jill, Jessa, Jinger and now Joy are gone. That leaves Jana with all the boys and the little girls. That SUCKS!

[Mrs. Figg]

I remember the singing video from Christmas time. Does anyone know where to find it? Was he in it?

[Mercer]

For the record, I don't think getting married at age 19-20 is at all ideal. Everyone is different and it's an extremely personal choice, but that's just so very young.

That said, it's not like Joy will be missing out on growing up experiences she'd otherwise be having. It's not like she'd be going to college. It's not like she'd be getting her first job and her first apartment. She wouldn't be serving in the military, or going abroad for language study, or joining the Peace Corps, or earning a trades certificate, or taking an Americorps position, or any of the other ways young people transition to full-fledged adulthood.

Her only alternative would be to sit at home and tend her parents' children in their isolated fundie bubble - and I would question whether a few more years of just more of the same would really help her mature all that much. Growing up happens through lived experiences, not just by magic, and the Duggars get precious few of those. 

[snickers34]

3 minutes ago, feministxtian said:

But...now Jana is stuck being the one and only "sister-mom" left at home. Jill, Jessa, Jinger and now Joy are gone. That leaves Jana with all the boys and the little girls. That SUCKS!

Maybe, but.....Joy's not gone yet. Plus I agree that there's a decent chance it will be a longer courtship considering her age.

[Imaginary_Wonderland]

In that picture of Joy with Austin's family, there is a guy with a beard - is he the same guy that was standing behind Joy in Jinger &Jeremy wedding pic of them in the car? That guy also had a beard.

Someone did ask if it was possible if he was Joy's 'special friend' and someone else replied saying who he actually was. But I can't remember who it was now and wondering if it is the same guy.

If it is, then Austin wouldn't have been far off out of view either, and will probably show up in the wedding episode or extra photos we will see later on. Maybe?

[Kira]

From September:

That's Austin behind Joy

4 minutes ago, Imaginary_Wonderland said:

In that picture of Joy with Austin's family, there is a guy with a beard - is he the same guy that was standing behind Joy in Jinger &Jeremy wedding pic of them in the car? That guy also had a beard.

Someone did ask if it was possible if he was Joy's 'special friend' and someone else replied saying who he actually was. But I can't remember who it was now and wondering if it is the same guy.

If it is, then Austin wouldn't have been far off out of view either, and will probably show up in the wedding episode or extra photos we will see later on. Maybe?

I think his name is Bobby Ballinger.

 

13 minutes ago, Suz8710 said:

They both look so young but from what l saw in the video & know of the family, this doesn't appear to be a Ben & Jeremy situation. While I believe they do love their wives, I've always felt those two came out of the woodwork, in part entralled by the cameras and what it could do for them. Possibly Derick too.

It's kind of funny, it seems like Joy picked someone with more of an "Anna" type background than any of the guys her sisters chose. 

 

I thought Jeremy met Jinger through Ben and Jessa? Derick met Jill at some Christmas/church thing.

[JermajestyDuggar]

The Duggars are friends with both the Forsythe and Ballinger family. It looks like Bobby Jr married Megan Forsythe last year and they are now pregnant and at least half way through the pregnancy. And I think Austin has always been friends with Bobby Jr. So these families are all intertwined and have been for a long time.

[cathgrl1]

The episode where the he-men went out and did the zipline and stuff ... was that at this family camp? I remember Jim Boob, JD, Derick and Ben on that trip.

[quiverofdoubt]

3 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

The Duggars are friends with both the Forsythe and Ballinger family. It looks like Bobby Jr married Megan Forsythe last year and they are now pregnant and at least half way through the pregnancy. And I think Austin has always been friends with Bobby Jr. So these families are all intertwined and have been for a long time.

It's crazy how intertwined it all is. and how several of these families have had their own shows in some capacity or another.  Like, the duggars have a tlc series/show out, and the forsythe family are on the strictest parents episode- and meanwhile they probably all went out carolling together that xmas or whatever.  but on tv you'd never know the two were connected

[JermajestyDuggar]

The only reason JB is allowing her to court this young is because she's being handed over to a family they know very well and is exactly like them. Oh and they need another season. 

[quiverofdoubt]

any chance at all that this kid is going to rebel?  

I'm picturing in my head him and joy having secret little talks about how they hate being in such crazy and strict families, and how they are going to get out. and deciding to court and all that in order to escape together.

no? please?

my internet won't load the strictest parents episode right now, but when i can i'd like to watch it to really get an idea of what's on this kids mind.

[ClaraOswin]

I wonder how many skeletons are in the Forsythe family closet. Are they Gothard followers?

Austin's Instagram bio says he's a Texan. So I guess that explains the necklace. (But when was he a Texan? Born there maybe?)

[immodest_countenance]

Watching the worlds strictest parents episode now. The Forsyths seem the duggars circa 2006: jean-skirts, ultra-patriarchal , weird-homeschooled, full blown gothardites. While my heart absolutely breaks for joy; we might see a turning point. 

The duggars have definitely "rebranded" themselves across the years. They went from wierd freak-show on tlc to beloved christian reality tv stars. A lot of that has to do with their normalization to a mainstream audience. Little house in the prairie dresses and crunchy curls were exchanged for more modern, and less gothard approved, clothing. Yes, to those with long memories remember they are ati, iblp, quiverfull christians, but to leg humpers they are just normal evangelical christians who were a bit more conservative than most. 

The duggars choice in spouses also reflects that. Except for anna (who came at a time when 17kids and counting was still in sideshow mode for tlc), all of the duggar spouses were non-ati. Fundies for sure; who abided by weird courtship rules such as no kissing, but not long jean skirts weird. Even Jeremy, who I have my reservations about for other reasons, is almost a perfect pick as far as the image goes. Here is is this good-looking, worldly, experienced, former soccer player with a past. Comes from a semi-normal family, with a mom who wears pants, a sister who seems pretty independant, and a brother who makes artistic non-fundie films. The tabloids could talk about Jeremy's past and how he found Jesus, and his time as  a soccer player, etc. The beautiful wedding, his normal family, life outside of home (college, work, etc) Essentially he was perfect duggar PR. 

HOWEVER, from what I'm seeing about the forsyths; are what the duggars are trying to make people forget. How weird, out there, and off putting their gothard flavored christianity is. If they push joys courtship liked they did with jingers; i don't see the general audience receiving it as well as they did with JingJer.  

[Justmurrayed]

I don't know how to feel. Joy is 19, which basically means at least 10 kids for her if she's even a kinda fertile. The only bright spot I can think of is that at least she seems to know him a bit, but I really do hope this is what they both want and they aren't just trying to get away from their parents. And I get it, I started dating my husband at 15 so who the heck am I to give them grief but at least we had a chance to grow up together and experience things together  before we had a few babies but we all know Joy will be popping them out at least once every two years for the next 20. 

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

14 minutes ago, quiverofdoubt said:

any chance at all that this kid is going to rebel?  

I'm picturing in my head him and joy having secret little talks about how they hate being in such crazy and strict families, and how they are going to get out. and deciding to court and all that in order to escape together.

no? please?

my internet won't load the strictest parents episode right now, but when i can i'd like to watch it to really get an idea of what's on this kids mind.

I'm thinking (hoping) the same thing. She's to young. She's the same age as my son, no way he is old enough to adult on his own and he's been allowed to live  "normal" life. 

[Georgiana]

Joy is also a sort of turning point in the Duggar kids:  all the kids older than her are old enough to really remember the tough times.  They are old enough to remember locking themselves in a bathroom to get food.  They remember how tough it was before TLC came around, and I think that's a real reason that the Duggar women so far have chosen spouses from outside the cult who are from solidly middle-class homes.  They have NO interest in reliving that.

But Joy and everyone on down is really too young to remember life pre-TLC, and if they do, it's heavily colored by the rosy glow of young childhood.  Joy probably has relatively few memories before 14 kids (she would have been 7 when it aired) and not that many before TTH (she was 9 when they moved in).  Joy probably never hit a serious growth spurt while food was still tight.  She never hit an age where she wanted her space while they were crammed in that little house.  She wasn't one of the eldest girls, so she got to be a "kid" longer.  It's only recently that she's had to really run the household.  

Basically, she doesn't understand what the lifestyle really entails.  She remembers it all as TLC and roses.  

[Pasta]

I was really rooting for a different duggar. Oh well.  Does this mean Thad the show gets renewed for another season?