- Joined
- Oct 24, 2019
A couple things regarding the food issue:
1) Michelle likes to go on about how she acquired an eating disorder because she didn't value herself because she didn't have Jesus. Fast forward decades later and Jill is talking about hoarding tinned vegetables in the bathroom as a kid, the Duggar kids all talking about how every meal is a race to get enough (because Jim Bob and Michelle are too lazy to, say, set out individual portions so everyone gets enough. You just know Josh's fat, greedy ass was hogging everything while shoving the ravenous little ones out of the way.) and Jinger becomes anorexic/Bulimic.
Bravo, Michelle, you just keep hitting those good judgment home runs. No wonder the only child you and your shitbag husband raised yourselves grew up to be a sexual predator.
Weird food shit is prevalent in Quiverfull/IFB families, and it is no surprise given
2) How hard it would be to feed so many kids, especially if you're below the poverty line like the vast majority of them. You see a lot of overweight parents to skinny AF kids. Kids are bottomless holes for food, especially teenage boys. (See: The Plaths, the Rodrigueses, the Turpins [yes I know they "stopped" being Quiverfull Pentacostals and pursued a bunch of other religious bullshit but they were 100% trying to become the next Duggars and went back and forth a lot]
3) Speaking of the poverty line, since formal education is Of The Devil and His Communist Agenda, since government assistance is banned, and since women are not allowed to work outside the home, this often sends good Christian Housewives straight into MLM's. Many of which are specifically marketed to the Christian market and are - you guessed it - weight loss snake oil. Lots of MLM shit among that set. Once again, see: The Rodrigueses. Apparently Jill Dillard also dabbled in it briefly after she and Derick broke off from the family funds, until she was offered some more legit sponsors. Which really says a lot, IMHO, about how pervasive the MLM culture in fundiedom is if the first idea a reality star with hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers had to make money was MLM stuff and not legit product endorsements that people with a fraction of her audience get.
4) Some of it comes down to, you guessed it, good old misogyny: Apparently in IFB the prevailing wisdom is that women are just so stupid, helpless, and pathetic that any man who marries her is doing her a huge favor because of what a burden she is. Therefore, the least she can do is keep herself skinny and hot for her husband. According to Sadie Carpenter, ministers would literally preach this from the pulpits and chastise girls and women for gaining weight as part of their sermons. That's bad enough, now add to it the circumstances most of these women are in: they are taking care of 6-20 kids all day on very, very limited funds. While it is possible to make inexpensive healthy meals, that requires time they do not have. Thus they are resigned to starchy carbs. Add to that the get togethers where you're obligated to eat some of everything people bring or it is an insult (and the meals these people bring are things like Mac and Cheese). This doesn't leave them much opportunity for healthy diet and exercise. Now add in over a dozen pregnancies over the course of 20-30 years. Thus, we have the obsession with snake oil MLM diet products. After all, if you don't keep thin, ladies, then it will be your fault your husband cheats on you/rapes someone/diddles a kid/spends half hour net worth on hookers and porn! (it will still be your fault regardless, of course. But for some other reason we'll make up). Fun fact: starving and drugging people is a common practice of cults to maintain control over people. If you're practically starving and caught in a spiral of body dysmorphia, it's hard to question things or stand up for yourself.
(Oh, and apparently they're also HUUUUGE into sleep deprivation. Apparently at Hyles Anderson Bible College you were supposed to work dozens of hours a week + schoolwork and classes + super early morning church attendence + Mission planning all while engaging in school approved social activities. And if you fell asleep during a sermon, you were publicly humiliated and disciplined. Apparently people would do things like chug tons of water and hold their bladders for hours or put tacks in their shoes just to keep themselves awake.)
There was this run of episodes on the show where Josh decides to try and lose weight while he is in DC. (They later dropped it because despite having been provided a personal trainer and nutritionist and a meal plan and the fact that he basically had a personal chef in Anna... He just got fatter). His diet coach/trainer came to their house one episode and did an inspection/raid of their kitchen and apparently it was like, 75% processed sugar and carbs. Which is not too big a surprise when you consider that Anna was raised in the cult with a bajillion siblings and she probably only knew how to cook Tater Tot Casserole. I've also noticed that 1) All the Duggar boys who tend to marry more Fundie-lite women tend to gain weight soon after their weddings and 2) When Jill was first blogging, she was posting recipes for some standard Fundie Carb-age but over the last few years the stuff she posts to her blog tend to be a lot more appetizing.
Not exactly revolutionary, but it also isn't barbecue sauce slathered over canned tuna fish.
I will say this for Kim Plath, even if she went to extremes, I do appreciate the fact that she did not raise her kids on pure starch. Even if she didn't obey her own rules.
1) Michelle likes to go on about how she acquired an eating disorder because she didn't value herself because she didn't have Jesus. Fast forward decades later and Jill is talking about hoarding tinned vegetables in the bathroom as a kid, the Duggar kids all talking about how every meal is a race to get enough (because Jim Bob and Michelle are too lazy to, say, set out individual portions so everyone gets enough. You just know Josh's fat, greedy ass was hogging everything while shoving the ravenous little ones out of the way.) and Jinger becomes anorexic/Bulimic.
Bravo, Michelle, you just keep hitting those good judgment home runs. No wonder the only child you and your shitbag husband raised yourselves grew up to be a sexual predator.
Weird food shit is prevalent in Quiverfull/IFB families, and it is no surprise given
2) How hard it would be to feed so many kids, especially if you're below the poverty line like the vast majority of them. You see a lot of overweight parents to skinny AF kids. Kids are bottomless holes for food, especially teenage boys. (See: The Plaths, the Rodrigueses, the Turpins [yes I know they "stopped" being Quiverfull Pentacostals and pursued a bunch of other religious bullshit but they were 100% trying to become the next Duggars and went back and forth a lot]
3) Speaking of the poverty line, since formal education is Of The Devil and His Communist Agenda, since government assistance is banned, and since women are not allowed to work outside the home, this often sends good Christian Housewives straight into MLM's. Many of which are specifically marketed to the Christian market and are - you guessed it - weight loss snake oil. Lots of MLM shit among that set. Once again, see: The Rodrigueses. Apparently Jill Dillard also dabbled in it briefly after she and Derick broke off from the family funds, until she was offered some more legit sponsors. Which really says a lot, IMHO, about how pervasive the MLM culture in fundiedom is if the first idea a reality star with hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers had to make money was MLM stuff and not legit product endorsements that people with a fraction of her audience get.
4) Some of it comes down to, you guessed it, good old misogyny: Apparently in IFB the prevailing wisdom is that women are just so stupid, helpless, and pathetic that any man who marries her is doing her a huge favor because of what a burden she is. Therefore, the least she can do is keep herself skinny and hot for her husband. According to Sadie Carpenter, ministers would literally preach this from the pulpits and chastise girls and women for gaining weight as part of their sermons. That's bad enough, now add to it the circumstances most of these women are in: they are taking care of 6-20 kids all day on very, very limited funds. While it is possible to make inexpensive healthy meals, that requires time they do not have. Thus they are resigned to starchy carbs. Add to that the get togethers where you're obligated to eat some of everything people bring or it is an insult (and the meals these people bring are things like Mac and Cheese). This doesn't leave them much opportunity for healthy diet and exercise. Now add in over a dozen pregnancies over the course of 20-30 years. Thus, we have the obsession with snake oil MLM diet products. After all, if you don't keep thin, ladies, then it will be your fault your husband cheats on you/rapes someone/diddles a kid/spends half hour net worth on hookers and porn! (it will still be your fault regardless, of course. But for some other reason we'll make up). Fun fact: starving and drugging people is a common practice of cults to maintain control over people. If you're practically starving and caught in a spiral of body dysmorphia, it's hard to question things or stand up for yourself.
(Oh, and apparently they're also HUUUUGE into sleep deprivation. Apparently at Hyles Anderson Bible College you were supposed to work dozens of hours a week + schoolwork and classes + super early morning church attendence + Mission planning all while engaging in school approved social activities. And if you fell asleep during a sermon, you were publicly humiliated and disciplined. Apparently people would do things like chug tons of water and hold their bladders for hours or put tacks in their shoes just to keep themselves awake.)
There was this run of episodes on the show where Josh decides to try and lose weight while he is in DC. (They later dropped it because despite having been provided a personal trainer and nutritionist and a meal plan and the fact that he basically had a personal chef in Anna... He just got fatter). His diet coach/trainer came to their house one episode and did an inspection/raid of their kitchen and apparently it was like, 75% processed sugar and carbs. Which is not too big a surprise when you consider that Anna was raised in the cult with a bajillion siblings and she probably only knew how to cook Tater Tot Casserole. I've also noticed that 1) All the Duggar boys who tend to marry more Fundie-lite women tend to gain weight soon after their weddings and 2) When Jill was first blogging, she was posting recipes for some standard Fundie Carb-age but over the last few years the stuff she posts to her blog tend to be a lot more appetizing.
Not exactly revolutionary, but it also isn't barbecue sauce slathered over canned tuna fish.
I will say this for Kim Plath, even if she went to extremes, I do appreciate the fact that she did not raise her kids on pure starch. Even if she didn't obey her own rules.
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