The Duggar Ladies' Clothing Item That Puzzles Fans

You don't have to watch Counting On to know that the Duggar family is extremely conservative. The Christian family has made a name for themselves not in the least because of their infamous rules about dating and courtship (as well as the family's molestation and transphobia scandals). Along with refraining from sex and even kissing before marriage, the Duggars, especially the Duggar women, follow strict modesty guidelines when it comes to their clothes.

The Duggar women wear long skirts (any amount of exposed thigh is scandalous), and most of them don't wear pants or shorts at all. But the blanket ban on pants doesn't always make sense, especially when the women are allowed to wear more formfitting skirt shapes like pencil skirts, as fans pointed out in a Reddit thread. So, why are the Duggars allowed to wear fitted skirts, but not, say, jeans or yoga pants? Fans think there's another factor at play than just the modesty factor. As countless parents know from toddler clothes, dresses and skirts can be physically limiting — and for ultra-conservative Christians, that might be part of the point.

If you're a parent of a young child, you might look for clothing styles like shorts and leggings that won't restrict your child's range of motion during playtime. But for Duggar women, who weren't allowed to play organized sports as children, it's a different story. Wearing long skirts (and having super-long hair) can make simple things like running a lot more challenging. So while seeing the Duggar women in fitted pencil skirts might be surprising at first, it makes more sense when you think about it. The Duggar ladies' regular activities don't often require, say, running or squatting — and their clothes keep it that way.

As the Duggar women have grown up and gotten married, many of them have started wearing more "revealing" and less-restrictive clothing. From jeans to shorts, these clothing items might seem insignificant to people who grew up in "normal" households, but seeing someone like Jill (Duggar) Dillard in denim shorts would have been unheard of back in the day. The Duggar women are still super conservative by most people's standards, but many of them have chosen to leave the long skirts behind, at least when it doesn't suit them to be in clothes that are so restrictive. Whatever the reason, it's nice to see them embracing their own choices, rather than sticking with a strict set of rules. And if they want to run in those jeans, so be it.