The First Breakout Duggar?

My bet has always been Jessa and I might be right.

Let me back up and say that I don’t watch 19 Kids and Counting on a regular basis. For one thing, I cut the cord so any Duggar stuff I get is from YouTube.  But even with YouTube, it’s a bit much. And it’s intensely boring, if such a thing was possible. But every now and then, a Duggar girl starts to court and my curiosity is piqued, so I go back to some of those earlier videos and try to get a feel for the personality, what little is allowed to express itself.

I’ve been tracking Jessa for awhile now. Jinger has her own FreeJinger humanitarian campaign that was a response to her facial expressions and stated desire to move to New York City someday, a notion that was promptly squashed by her parents.

Jessa always looked like a spring that has been wound too tightly. Her “jurisdiction” in the Duggar household is organization. This girl would make a good general. Instead, she’s been stuck with this holier-than-thou family and their zillion kids and no way to get a decent education or go to work. Here and there in the videos, one Duggar or another has dropped hints that, unlike Jill, who was the perfect child and family valedictorian, Jessa was, to put it bluntly, a pain in the ass. She’s willful.  In DuggarWorld, that’s almost the worst sin.  It’s hinted that she’s difficult to get along with and that her husband Ben Seewald could have a balancing effect.

In the recent episode featuring Jill’s wedding, Jessa seems to have partially given up the pretense of loving the Duggar life.  She expresses dismay at the idea that Jill is going to start popping out babies. (she is) She tells her dad that if he stands in the way of her marriage with Ben Seewald that she’ll elope. She says it in a “kidding on the square” manner. It’s surprising that the TLC cameras kept that in because I thought it was a big tell. It’s becoming more and more clear that her courtship with Seewald was more lusty than her sister’s purer than Ivory Soap courtship with her new husband.

Then there was the root beer float comment.  Jinger goes on and on about how everyone at Jill’s wedding got their root beer floats and they were delicious. Then Jessa says with deadpan sincerity and perfect timing, “I don’t like root beer”. In other words, she’s not anything like the other Duggars and she doesn’t mind telling you that.

So, this was the kid who has been acting the part for 21 years but may be fed up. She’s not really cut out to be a Duggar. It’s not her thing.

She married last week. It was a bit of a surprise but in Duggar World, courtships are long and engagements are short. That’s to keep you from feeling each other up before the big day. I’ve found it a little weird that they would allow Jessa to court Seewald in the first place. They’ve got an older unmarried daughter who isn’t courting. Ben is only 18 or 19 and it’s clear that his interest is carnal. Well, maybe not exclusively but it’s hard to miss. She’s hot and has an amazingly photogenic face. So, I’m guessing that the Duggars figured it’s better to marry her off quickly than to let her get into trouble.

But then the big day arrives and Jessa struck her first blow at independence from the Duggar family. They said their vows, the pastor pronounced them, and Jim-Bob gave the official go ahead for Ben to kiss his daughter and they said NO.

They decided, like the rest of the sane world, that their first kiss is intimate and they needed privacy.  Imagine that, a DUGGAR finally sticks up for her right to have a moment to herself without a sibling minder, or chaperone, without a million people watching.  She decided that she could make up her own mind as to what was good for her without someone else imposing their expectations on her.

It came as a surprise to the rest of the church and Jim-Bob. I hope they were applauded. I know I certainly did when I read about it. So, Jessa and Ben didn’t kiss in front of a crowd of screaming fundies. Instead, they left the altar unkissed and made out in a room of the church after the ceremony. Rumor has it they had sex there too but that’s ridiculous. But what difference does it make what they did? It’s none of our business and none of their parents’ business either.

And if Jessa and Ben still end up being a couple of sanctimonious churchy types, I don’t expect it to last long. She’s already waaaaay ahead of some of her siblings in her mind. The crack has been open and Jessa is making a run for it.

BTW, Jessa posted a very unDuggar like lusty photo of her and Ben kissing.  It’s absolutely wonderful.