14 DAY TRIAL // The Duggars lost their TLC reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, after it was revealed that Josh, the eldest, had molested 5 minor girls when he was a teen. Four of his victims were his own sisters, with Jill and Jessa Duggar willingly identifying themselves as such this summer.
Jill, Jessa and mother Michelle were all included on the latest documentary from TLC, Breaking the Silence, which aired last night.
Speaking up for the need of more education on the topic
The documentary included testimony from many survivors of child abuse, including DWTS pro dancer Cheryl Burke, former “Desperate Housewives” star Teri Hatcher, and activist Erin Merryn.
Done in participation with RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) and Darkness to Light (D2L), the documentary aired without commercials and was meant as an extended PSA. TLC decided to produce and air it shortly after the details of the Josh Duggar case became public knowledge, when a glossy obtained an older police record through the Freedom of Information Act.
Jill and Jessa’s participation was confirmed with the first announcement, but seeing their mother Michelle was a surprise.
The 3 attended a seminar on abuse prevention and spoke about their experience with child abuse and how it had taught them the importance of having proper education on the topic.
“I feel like this should be a discussion people are having, even regularly. I think that it shouldn't be a taboo subject, that we should be bringing awareness to child sexual abuse and talking about this,” Jessa said, as cited by People Magazine. “[I learned] things I can do to be more aware, things I can do to set up boundaries and safeguards for my child and children, hopefully, in the future.”
Michelle, for her part, revealed that she was glad she could attend the seminar with her daughters because she had learned that what had happened with their own family years ago was not an isolated occurrence.
Making light of a very serious matter
The TLC initiative is admirable, to say the least, especially since the network has also gone to the trouble of offering plenty of helpful tips to parents to recognize the signs of child abuse and to cope after confirmation of it is obtained.
Still, one can’t but feel like the Duggars shouldn’t have been included on the special. In June this year, as the Josh molestation scandal reached a peak, the family sat down for an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, whose sole purpose was to defend Josh publicly. One way they did that was by diminishing the severity of his actions.
On the one hand, Michelle and husband Jim Bob said there was no molestation, there was only some touching that was inappropriate. Josh was not a molester, he was a teen going through a difficult time and making mistakes, and his victims didn’t exist because none of the girls ever knew anything about what he was doing to them.
On the other hand, Jill and Jessa said that they were more victimized by the media than by what happened with Josh, because what happened was of no importance. He was a boy going through puberty who made a “mistake,” and they were never really taken advantage of or molested because they were asleep and didn’t know what he was doing.
When the Duggars made such obvious and desperate efforts to distance themselves from the molestation narrative, it seems somewhat forced to have 3 of them on a documentary about child abuse, does it not?