The Duggars have many habits and customs that seem downright bizarre to those of us on the outside of their insular world.
Many of these behaviors have to do with the family’s strange attitude toward sex and relationships.
The Duggar courtship rules are infamously strict, and virtually all forms of physical contact between unmarried men and women is frowned upon by Jim Bob and company.
But once a Duggar couple ties the knot, they’re encouraged to flaunt their sexuality in strange, competitive ways.
This phenomenon has been extensively documented on the family’s TLC reality shows.
In the wake of Josh Duggar’s conviction on child pornography charges, many critics of the Duggars have been revisiting old episodes in search of clues that might shed light on the depth of the family’s depravity.
Needless to say, such clues have not been hard to come by.
We’ve already seen Josh sexually harassing wife Anna Duggar during a birthing class and joking about her oral sex skills while conversing with a doctor.
Now, folks on the always-amusing r/DuggarSnark subreddit are focusing on the many bizarre instances in which members of the Duggar clan made big, showy displays of making out with their spouses, seemingly to prove some sort of point.
“Let me show y’all the best way to kiss here. If you kiss straight on, your noses hit each other,” Jim Bob said in one such scene, while instructing daughter Jill on how best to kiss her husband.
“So you have to turn one way and she turns the other,” the father of 19 added.
“Y’all are so cute,” Jessa awkwardly noted.
“WHO kisses in front of their kids to teach them how??!! It’s not that difficult to figure out naturally, and it also gives off such a creepy ‘asserting dominance’ vibe. So gross,” wrote one redditor in response to the gross scene.
“Disturbing,” another added.
“I seriously can’t stomach Jim Bob!” a third chimed in.
“Even years ago when I loved them I cringed every second of their show,” a fourth confessed.
We’re not sure why someone who went into a cringe spasm at the sight of the Duggars would “love” the family, but to each their own!
In another scene, Jim Bob grabbed his wife and kicked off a group make-out session after seeing Josh kiss Anna.
“We like kissing too,” the patriarch blurted out.
Several such scenes have been posted on Reddit, according to The Sun, and some of them show Duggars making out with their spouses while surrounded by small children.
Needless to say, commenters were thoroughly grossed out.
“My God. The fish kiss in the beginning. I am so uncomfortable,” one person observed.
“Oh God I hated it. Hate hate hate it,” another noted.
“I’m trying to imagine sitting around at my in-laws while the couples just kiss each other.. together? So weird.”
Some of the Duggars’ behavior can be chalked up to the fact that they rarely interact with people outside of their cult-like inner circle.
But much of their behavior is performative, and as many viewers noted, the goal seems to be to prove to outsiders how in love they are.
“Why do they feel the need to compete with another couple when they see them kiss? I don’t immediately rush to kiss my husband after my brother kisses his girlfriend,” one redditor noted.
“They look so insecure like ‘Hey guys! Look at us! We love each other too!’ It’s f–king weird. Their kisses also look really forced and aggressive. There’s nothing natural about any of it,” another pointed out.
“Ewwwwwwwwww what the hell is happening in the living room? Some Fundie orgy?” a third asked.
“It feels so inappropriate in front of the children like that,” another commenter observed.
“This is seriously so disgusting lol.”
It’s easy to laugh at the Duggars (fun, too!), but as some critics have pointed out, Jim Bob and Michelle’s over-involvement in their kids’ sex lives is really no laughing matter.
“Jim Boo and Shelly were/are waaaay too invested in their kids intimate moments, such as kissing, and wedding night,” one redditor observed.
“It definitely gave me pause back when I watched the show. I stopped watching after the parents were featured more and more on the show.”
It’s impossible to know the extent to which Josh’s depravity is a result of his upbringing — but there’s no doubt that the two are connected.