What to Know
The Duggars have really gone mainstream. Well, more or less. When Joy Duggar posted a video on Instagram of her and sister Jinger Duggar dancing and shaking their butts for the camera, it seemed to mark a major turning point for a rule that was once a big part of the family’s modesty standards.
I’m not saying that Joy, Jinger, and their many siblings will be giving the Jabbawockeez a run for their money any time soon. However, it is pretty telling that the sisters chose to post a video that does legitimately contradict a rule that was even spoken about in 19 Kids and Counting. This is a family where weddings include cake and juice and zero dancing, after all.
Joy Duggar and Jinger Duggar’s dancing video goes against a specific Duggar doctrine.
In the video, Joy and Jinger dance with their hoodies on backwards and their hoods pulled up over their faces. In the caption, Joy wrote, “Proof we’ve spent way too much time together.” The idea of the video is to see if they dance the same without looking at each other.
The joke that most of us are aware of, though, is that neither woman grew up dancing to actually have a dance style of their own, though. Dancing was forbidden as a part of the Duggar family’s list of modest and fundamentalist values. But I guess if Joy and Jinger do dance the same, it means they are closer than they thought, having had no shared exposure to dancing or much “worldly” music growing up together.
In the video, Jinger and Joy have little rhythm as they dance, faces covered, to a mashup of Michael Jackson songs. They do dance similarly, complete with timid finger snaps and leg kicks. But when Joy shakes her booty a bit, it adds another layer of naughtiness to the video that, for any other family, would be totally normal. For a Duggar daughter, it’s almost an act of rebellion, as silly as that might sound.
People still called the video cringe.
After the Instagram video was shared on Reddit, snarkers around the world came together to make fun of both Jinger and Joy. It’s just the way of the internet, really. There might be more people who follow the former reality TV family out of curiosity rather than support at this point.
“That is some of the whitest dancing that ever whited,” a Reddit user commented.
“It’s obvious that they weren’t even allowed to see dancing for most of their lives,” another person wrote. “This is cringe af, they should probably never do this in front of a camera again.”
I mean, that’s fair. And, as another person pointed out, the video itself seems like something a couple of preteens would do at a sleepover.
Someone also joked, “This proves the importance of allowing your kids to dance growing up. Otherwise you get whatever the f–k this is years later.”
There is a ’19 Kids and Counting’ episode that goes into the family’s rule against dancing.
@itsrowsdower Replying to @allisonsantiago165 Jackson you keep dancing if you want! #duggarsnark #duggartiktok #duggartok #19kidsandcountingclips #jacksonduggar #duggardance #duggarcringe ♬ original sound – Itsrowsdower
In an early 19 Kids and Counting episode, the Duggars are in a store and one of the younger kids starts dancing a bit to a musical toy. One of the older boys turns it off and eldest daughter Jana Duggar explains that “jumping for joy” is OK, but dancing is not.
Then, Jim Bob Duggar says to producers, “I think any of the little ones, when they hear music, they start jiggling around. It’s just natural. That’s the reason we’re real careful about the music that we allow in our home.”
In one episode, Michelle Duggar explains, “We believe that dancing can stir up sensual desires, especially in guys, that cannot be righteously fulfilled…we just don’t believe it’s something that our family wants to get involved in doing.”
Hopefully Joy and Jinger didn’t “sir up” anyone’s “sensual desires” with their special brand of dancing.
READ NEXT: Joy-Anna Duggar’s Latest Video Is Giving Viewers Serious Secondhand Embarrassment
