Jana Duggar 16: Living in a Tiny House in Daddy's Backyard

[vienna]

Jinger was talking about vows Gothard made women take in an interview. They had to vowe not the get married for 5 or 10 years and she explained, that he did this to women of all age and how absurd this is. When she was talking about it I thought: Maybe thats what happens to Jana. Maybe she can't marry although she actually would want to but has made a stupid vow to Gothard?

[SorenaJ]

I don’t get why Gothard would make women make a vow to not marry. Surely it’s better to keep them submissive under male authority with a bunch of children to take care of, than to have them have all this free time for independent thinking. 

Edited June 8, 2023 by SorenaJ

[HeartsAFundie]

2 hours ago, SorenaJ said:

I don’t get why Gothard would make women make a vow to not marry. Surely it’s better to keep them submissive under male authority with a bunch of children to take care of, than to have them have all this free time for independent thinking. 

Exactly.  It completely goes against the Quiverfull philosophy to have as many kids ASAP.  

[Knight of Ni]

2 hours ago, SorenaJ said:

I don’t get why Gothard would make women make a vow to not marry. Surely it’s better to keep them submissive under male authority with a bunch of children to take care of, than to have them have all this free time for independent thinking. 

Maybe not all women but only those he specifically wanted to target.

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, Knight of Ni said:

Maybe not all women but only those he specifically wanted to target.

This wouldn’t surprise me. There were certain females he wanted at headquarters. These women provided lots of unpaid work and he has access to them. If they are married, their new headship gets to control them. Not Gothard. 

[Smee]

Jana was never at Headquarters was she? That we know of. Was she one of the ones who did Journey To The Heart a couple of times?

I’m inclined to agree that she’s all in on IBLP and simply single because she hasn’t met a godly young gentleman who meets her standards. And now perhaps SHE doesn’t meet THEIR standards and so she carries on under Daddy’s headship until someone asks for her hand. There was the failed courtship with Stephen Wissman too, and probably a few other potential suitors they managed to keep quiet. I do think she’s having a happier life more or less retired with a garden after her child raising years are mostly over, than she would be married with a quiver of toddlers, but I don’t think she PLANNED it this way, it just happened to work out in her favour.

[FluffySnowball]

On 6/8/2023 at 9:23 AM, vienna said:

Jinger was talking about vows Gothard made women take in an interview. They had to vowe not the get married for 5 or 10 years and she explained, that he did this to women of all age and how absurd this is. When she was talking about it I thought: Maybe thats what happens to Jana. Maybe she can't marry although she actually would want to but has made a stupid vow to Gothard?

This reminds me, didn’t Anna (née Keller) vow not to get married before turning 20? Perhaps she was made to take a 5 year vow at 15 (I mean, generally, it’s absolutely fine not to marry in your teens but it still is invasive to take someone’s choice away by trying to interfere in what should be a personal and free decision). 

[Meggo]

1 hour ago, FluffySnowball said:

This reminds me, didn’t Anna (née Keller) vow not to get married before turning 20? Perhaps she was made to take a 5 year vow at 15 (I mean, generally, it’s absolutely fine not to marry in your teens but it still is invasive to take someone’s choice away by trying to interfere in what should be a personal and free decision). 

I just googled that and according to US magazine (I know - the source of all sources - ha!) she vowed not to get engaged before she turned 20. So he proposed ON her 20th birthday. 
And these groups seem to get married about 12 minutes after getting engaged so - it's not like she'd get engaged at 20 and married at 22. 
I think about who I was at 20? And eeesh - I mean - I wasn't groomed to ONLY get married and have kids - so maybe it's different- but I sure as heck wasn't looking for a life partner at 20 (and thank goodness because those choices were awful) 

 

[Cam]

Unless Jana actually says it, I won’t believe she took some kind of vow not to marry for x number of years. I also don’t believe she stayed single and at home to help raise her younger siblings, like some people seem to think. I think she just didn’t feel pressured to immediately fall into the traditional role of fundie wife and mom. Her oldest brother was already giving her parents grandkids. Several of her sisters followed suit a few years later. Jana tried the courting thing a time or two and didn’t feel like she had to rush into something that wasn’t right. In the process, she was able to embrace her single-dom.

I give her credit for not settling. If Jana was desperate to marry, it would be simple enough to tell parents and they’d practically put out an APB to all eligible bachelors in the land to find her one. It wouldn’t be hard at all to find her a mate. 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Cam

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, Smee said:

Jana was never at Headquarters was she? That we know of. Was she one of the ones who did Journey To The Heart a couple of times?

I’m inclined to agree that she’s all in on IBLP and simply single because she hasn’t met a godly young gentleman who meets her standards. And now perhaps SHE doesn’t meet THEIR standards and so she carries on under Daddy’s headship until someone asks for her hand. There was the failed courtship with Stephen Wissman too, and probably a few other potential suitors they managed to keep quiet. I do think she’s having a happier life more or less retired with a garden after her child raising years are mostly over, than she would be married with a quiver of toddlers, but I don’t think she PLANNED it this way, it just happened to work out in her favour.

  I think she was in charge of the Journey to the Heart program at least once—or as much in charge as a woman ever was. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I just want to point out that Jana’s wearing pants has coincided with the collective female pants wearing at IBLP events. She started wearing pants once it became much more common for women to wear pants in IBLP. In these groups, it’s a much bigger deal to be the first one to wear pants in a sea of skirts. Jill and Jinger were the first ones to wear pants while everyone was still wearing skirts. Jana just hopped on board after many many others were wearing pants. So to me, it’s not a major sign of any sort of rebellion. I think JB has given up on the pants thing for the adult daughters. He may not like it, but he has much bigger fish to fry. 

[Idlewild]

Is Jana’s friend, Laura??, still working for IBLP? 

[Cam]

3 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I just want to point out that Jana’s wearing pants has coincided with the collective female pants wearing at IBLP events. She started wearing pants once it became much more common for women to wear pants in IBLP. In these groups, it’s a much bigger deal to be the first one to wear pants in a sea of skirts. Jill and Jinger were the first ones to wear pants while everyone was still wearing skirts. Jana just hopped on board after many many others were wearing pants. So to me, it’s not a major sign of any sort of rebellion. I think JB has given up on the pants thing for the adult daughters. He may not like it, but he has much bigger fish to fry. 

It’s also said that IBLP is looking to update their image to draw more people to their cult. Allowing fundie women to wear pants in today’s world, especially such a visual, social media one, is an attempt at normalizing their image. Make them more palatable to the masses and seem innocuous. 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Cam

[JermajestyDuggar]

7 minutes ago, Cam said:

It’s also said that IBLP is looking to update their image to draw more people to their cult. Allowing fundie women to wear pants in today’s world, especially such a visual, social media one, is an attempt at normalizing their image. Make them more palatable to the masses and seem innocuous. 

I think that’s the way fundies are going in general. Look at Paul and Morgan. Or girl defined. They all dress mainstream and trendy. They talk mainstream. They aren’t wearing frumpers and faking a baby voice. Thats how they are sucking in more people. They look mainstream. They don’t look odd.

[Cam]

5 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I think that’s the way fundies are going in general. Look at Paul and Morgan. Or girl defined. They all dress mainstream and trendy. They talk mainstream. They aren’t wearing frumpers and faking a baby voice. Thats how they are sucking in more people. They look mainstream. They don’t look odd.

Yes, very much so! It feels like it this approach began to get ushered in once Trump was in office. The emphasis was on women looking like the Stepford ones on the air at Fox network and in his cabinet like Ivanka and press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany. Fundies were so enamored of Trump, a shift in appearance to look more like his followers was permitted. 

[Father Son Holy Goat]

Given what we now know about the prevalence of “encouragement” in the Duggar house I wonder if Jana decided not to marry due wanting to avoid domestic violence 

[Smee]

3 hours ago, Father Son Holy Goat said:

Given what we now know about the prevalence of “encouragement” in the Duggar house I wonder if Jana decided not to marry due wanting to avoid domestic violence 

Nah, I doubt JB and M did the “spousal discipline” thing, so if anything marriage would have been seen as a way to finally be an adult and STOP being beaten for transgressions against your parental authority. We know plenty of fundies continue to beat their teenage kids and probably older.

[Angelface]

I wonder how many of the older teenage boys “snap” and hit back?

[Smee]

1 hour ago, Angelface said:

I wonder how many of the older teenage boys “snap” and hit back?

I’ve wondered for a while if/when one of the Anderson boys would, but it seems they’ve moved out ASAP instead. The 20-something year old Holt son decided enough was enough, apparently. Didn’t he file for the restraining order the day before Bobye?

[shesinsane]

Jana and John David are twins, and twins tend to have similar interests (YMMV, but of the half dozen sets of twins I know, each pair has a lot in common). JD seemed happy to let Josh have the spotlight and fade into the Duggar background, finding activities outside the family (did you know he's a pilot?) and building his own life away from the Duggar compound. JD didn't work with his father to set up a courtship, he brought Abbie home one day and introduced her as his girlfriend. JD's family doesn't appear to be mostly supported by JimBob, which is another way he stands out from many of his siblings.

Jana may have the same drive to do her own thing and set up a life outside the Duggar world, but she was born a girl, which means she only had a sliver of the opportunities given to her twin. With her own little house on the Duggar property, she has found a way to do her own thing (she's the only elder daughter who hasn't gotten married) without violating her parents/IBLP's rules for how Christian women must live. 

[sndral]

Jana not marrying yet could be caused by many things:

1) She’s not interested, possible reasons: fear, true disinterest in being stuck in a heterosexual patriarchal fundie quiver full marriage, or shame (some hidden skeleton in the Duggar closet.)

2) She’s very interested, but has either not yet found the ‘one’ (not surprising - the fundie mate pool is pretty shallow & unappealing IMO) or any one she’s been interested in hasn’t reciprocated, opting instead for a prettier, less rigid, and (these days) younger female w/ a lot less baggage.

After seeing her reaction to the Stephen break up I’m leaning towards a combination of no man she’s been attracted to liked her enough to commit & she’s facing a rapidly shrinking pool of possibilities, the ‘good ones’ are likely already taken & the ones left aren’t interested in her. These people travel in very small circles, she’s likely already met all the possible partners.

[justmy2cents]

10 hours ago, shesinsane said:

Jana and John David are twins, and twins tend to have similar interests (YMMV, but of the half dozen sets of twins I know, each pair has a lot in common). JD seemed happy to let Josh have the spotlight and fade into the Duggar background, finding activities outside the family (did you know he's a pilot?) and building his own life away from the Duggar compound. JD didn't work with his father to set up a courtship, he brought Abbie home one day and introduced her as his girlfriend. JD's family doesn't appear to be mostly supported by JimBob, which is another way he stands out from many of his siblings.

The bolded is really not accurate. JD flew JB and Michelle to some conference where he saw Abbie. He was interested and confided in JB that he was interested. JB then spoke to Abbie's father who gave his blessing for JD to speak to her. It was something like that where both fathers gave their blessing. Maybe for the sake of the show he showed up with her unbeknownst to his siblings that they were courting, but he definitely was not the rebel that some posters on here made him out to be.

[BullyJBG]

I still think Jana had a potential boyfriend, or maybe more than one, who went through the interview process with JB. It all passed, and then JB wanted him to re-do it for the cameras, so they could put it on the show. He said no; didn't want to be on camera. Which would have resulted in arguments between him and JB, Jana having to choose, and JB maybe influenced her by saying "well if you go with a private courtship, people are gonna keep asking "where's Jana?" and we all look bad. And by now, with the show over, I suppose she could contact him and resume, but he then would either be no longer interested, or already married to someone else. But we'll likely never know. Unless he watches Shiny Happy People and gets inspired to "come out" with it.

[patsymae]

On 6/9/2023 at 11:57 AM, Cam said:

It’s also said that IBLP is looking to update their image to draw more people to their cult. Allowing fundie women to wear pants in today’s world, especially such a visual, social media one, is an attempt at normalizing their image. Make them more palatable to the masses and seem innocuous. 

Like the Bateses.

[viii]

2 hours ago, BullyJBG said:

I still think Jana had a potential boyfriend, or maybe more than one, who went through the interview process with JB. It all passed, and then JB wanted him to re-do it for the cameras, so they could put it on the show. He said no; didn't want to be on camera. Which would have resulted in arguments between him and JB, Jana having to choose, and JB maybe influenced her by saying "well if you go with a private courtship, people are gonna keep asking "where's Jana?" and we all look bad. And by now, with the show over, I suppose she could contact him and resume, but he then would either be no longer interested, or already married to someone else. But we'll likely never know. Unless he watches Shiny Happy People and gets inspired to "come out" with it.

That’s some wild fan fiction LOL