Women and Children Should Not Bear the Burden of Josh Duggar
The family’s recent response to his child pornography charges only underscores how complementarianism elevates men over the vulnerable, leaving women to deal with the fallout
This week Josh Duggar appeared in court on child pornography charges. Duggar became a public figure after starring in the TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, which was canceled in 2015 after news surfaced that, as a teen, Duggar had molested four of his sisters and a family friend.
At the child pornography hearing, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent described the more than 200 images said to have been downloaded on Duggar’s devices in May 2019. They depicted sexual abuse of children ages 18 months to 12 years old. Those images, the agent Gerald Faulkner said, were “in the top five of the worst of the worst that I’ve ever had to examine.”
While Duggar pled not guilty and his defense attorneys said they will fight the accusations in court, what’s distressing — beyond the horror of the charges — is the elevation of Duggar and his father Jim Bob’s wishes surrounding his release. They’re placed above the concerns of others, namely women in their lives, underscoring the disturbing gender dynamics within complementarian families like the Duggars, who believe men and women have different but “complementary” roles (that happen to put a woman a role submissive to her husband).
When the Duggars first appeared on TV, with their ever-expanding family population, mainstream viewers absorbed the numerous kids and modest daughters in skirts with blithe curiosity. The roots of their beliefs were sanitized, but what didn’t make it to the screen represents a reality that traumatized many kids growing up in similar families.
The Duggars were followers of Bill Gothard, a pastor and homeschooling advocate who taught children and wives fall under an “umbrella of authority,” with the father in a God-given role of authority over them to protect them from Satan’s influence.
