Jessa Duggar Was Reportedly To Speak About Dressing Modestly To Prevent Sexual Assault, Controversy Ensues

Jessa Duggar (Seewald) is raising some serious eyebrows this week amid talk that she was scheduled to speak at the Middletown Ladies Retreat in Ohio (for her controversial Quiverfull religious movement) about the need to dress modestly to, in part, prevent sexual assault. The Quiverfull “church” is a patriarchal Christian group that adheres to very strict rules about interactions between males and females, and which has been widely panned as misogynistic due to the role of women in the organization.

As The Hollywood Gossip reports, the Quiverfull group (the belief system behind the Duggar family’s famous 19 kids) came under serious fire in 2015 when some official teaching curriculum and other materials were made public. The information contained in the teaching materials blatantly revealed that the church frequented by the Duggar family and many others engages in “victim blaming” when it comes to instances of sexual abuse. Certainly not coincidentally, The Hollywood Gossip adds that the Duggar Quiverfull teaching aids were released just after the now-infamous Josh Duggar admitted to sexually molesting four of his sisters (including Jessa Duggar) and a neighbor girl in his late teens.

https://twitter.com/MandanKascara/status/851442562707595265

Jessa Duggar would later confirm that she had been a victim of her brother Josh’s sexual abuse publicly. As the Washington Post reports, her admission came during an interview with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. During her admission that Josh had sexually abused her and her sisters, Jessa Duggar blamed “the system” for making the information public, rather than blaming Josh for the abuse she endured

“The system that was set up to protect kids, both those who make stupid mistakes or have problems like this in their life and the ones that are affected by those choices — it’s greatly failed.”

Now, nearly two years after publicly admitting that she’d been sexually victimized by older brother Josh (who would go on to be exposed as a serial cheater, porn addict, and member of the infamous cheating website Ashley Madison, followed by undergoing months of “Christian-based” in-patient sex addiction rehab), Jessa Duggar was tapped to speak out to women and girls (no younger than 9 years old) about the importance of dressing modestly — if you’re a woman.

As the Quiverfull handout clearly illustrates, the religious movement popularized by Jessa Duggar and her parents has some very controversial views about sexual molestation and assault. Namely, that there are cases in which the victim is directly to blame for their abuse. What’s more, Jessa Duggar’s church teaches that even when the victim is not at fault for her own sexual abuse, it is part of “God’s plan” and the pathway to “spiritual power.”

In a nutshell, the male-dominated and led Quiverfull religious movement (which many refer to as “cult-like”) teaches females that they must remain subservient to their men, and that men cannot be expected to control their sexual urges while in the presence of provocatively dressed women.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSzTotclEdF/?taken-by=jessaseewald

The speech that Jessa Duggar was scheduled to give at the Middletown Ladies Retreat in Ohio was titled “Fashionably Modest.” Speculation was widespread that, because the event was off-limits to ladies under 9 years old, it may touch on the taboo subject of sexual molestation and what females can to to deter their attackers.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Jessa Duggar was listed as a speaker at the event on All Events. That is, until social media backlash ensued. Now, the link to the previously scheduled speaking engagement leads searchers to a “Page Not Found” landing site. However, prior to the link going dark, it had been titled “Middletown Ladies Retreat Featuring Guest Speaker Jessa Duggar Seewald.”

“Come hear first hand why Jessa has taken the road to modest living, while being directed by Gods word.”

It has been rumored that her speaking engagement has been officially cancelled, but those rumors have not been independently confirmed by event organizers or Jessa Duggar herself.

duggars: Ladies Retreat: Featuring guest speaker Jessa Duggar-Seewald When : Sat Jun 24 2017 at 10:00 am… https://t.co/y95B6N4XqF

— duggarbatesfan (@duggarbatesfan) April 8, 2017

It comes as no surprise that members of the general public were largely outraged that Jessa Duggar may be speaking to female children as young as 9 years old about the importance of dressing modestly to, in part, prevent sexual assault. And the 9-year-old age cut-off had many critics believing that a foray into the sexual assault risks of wearing a short skirt or showing too much skin may be precisely what Jessa, and event organizers, had in mind.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQQYdWYhMdS/?taken-by=jessaseewald

It’s unlikely that the world will know before Saturday’s previously scheduled event whether or not Jessa will be preaching modest dress, sexual assault, and/or the connection between the two to females aged 9 years old and over (men and younger children have apparently been exempted from the talk, and invited to a barbecue outside instead during the same time slot). However, if she does speak, it’s possible that some of the content will be leaked on her family’s blog or their TLC show.

Even if Jessa Duggar doesn’t speak over Easter weekend, it’s unlikely that her famous and ever-growing reality TV family will be out of the spotlight anytime soon. Recently, her big brother Josh and his wife Anna announced that they are expecting their fifth child roughly two years after he admitted to the sexual abuse of Jessa Duggar and others years ago.

[Featured Image by Jessa Seewald/Twitter]