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Chris Danforth's avatar

Sort of an aside, but not really, I went diving into the Duggars' Instagram friends (attempting to find a finstagram), and noticed that they followed other Duggars and the Gaines's almost exclusively.

I can't put my finger on what it is, exactly, about Chip and Joanna Gaines that causes the part of me that rejects my fundamentalist upbringing to be thoroughly disgusted by them. When I was in high school I worked at Mardel Christian Bookstore in the music section. On the walls we had a poster that said things like "If you like the Goo Goo Dolls, then try SonicFlood" and "If you like Destiny's Child, try Mary Mary." Maybe their show is like that poster, except instead of promoting a (mostly) harmless Christian band, it promotes Evangelical dominionism behind a saccharine, bleached smile.

Maybe the Duggars and the Gaines are just two prongs of the same fork.

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PN's avatar

This was fantastic. Thank you for sharing this kind of thinking and writing! Would be so interested to see a similar analysis of empire builder Ree Drummond/ Pioneer Woman and the American West. I’m also pretty fascinated by the power trio of design influencers/related Mormons Gabrielle Blair, Jordan Ferney & Liz Stanley.

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