Josh Duggar has 99 problems, and keeping his trouser-snake in his pants is the worst of them all.
On Wednesday, the oldest brother of the TLC show “19 Kids and Counting,” Josh Duggar checked himself into rehab. Duggar cites an addiction to pornography as the reason for seeking treatment. Considering the details from his past that surfaced this summer, the fact that Duggar watches a lot of pornography really isn’t surprising — or concerning.
Duggar has found himself caught with his hand in his pants after his Ashley Madison account and past crimes of sexual abuse were discovered by media outlets.
His past behavior indicates he likely has a bigger problem than an addiction to pornography. Watching a lot of porn shouldn’t make a person want to cheat on his wife, much less molest his siblings.
In today’s hookup-centric and Tinder-driven culture, finding a male who doesn’t watch porn is nearly as impossible as finding a parking spot in one of LSU’s commuter lots at 10 a.m. It rarely happens, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just something that is.
Our generation has instant, unlimited access to whatever our hearts desire. Whether we’re consuming music, movies, fashion or art, we’re able to do it instantly from the palms of our hands. This always-open window applies to pornography as well.
Duggar, like most millennials, has instant access to watch whatever he finds to be sexually arousing. I don’t know what Duggar is into — nor do I want to know — but correcting the rate at which he consumes pornography shouldn’t be seen as the answer to all of his problems. It also shouldn’t be accepted as his excuse either.
Preventing Duggar from watching porn isn’t going to stop him from cheating on his wife. It isn’t going to prevent him from committing sex crimes. If anything, it will probably sexually frustrate him to the point of committing another act of debauchery.
Duggar probably has a problem. It likely isn’t that he finds the timeless art of pornography to be addictive either. It’s that he lacks self-control.
He made the choice to cheat on his wife. He made the choice to abuse children. He also made the choice to log-in to PornHub however many times a day he did.
No one forced Duggar to do anything. He made each choice of his own volition, and he should accept the consequences and scrutiny that come with it.
Perhaps his religious upbringing has something to do with his ongoing behavior, but I don’t understand why Duggar can’t say no to his inner-demons. Getting sexually frustrated is a human experience. It happens to everyone. It doesn’t give one a hall pass to act like a d-bag.
Duggar claiming he has a pornography addiction sounds like a man who is looking for a way out of the firestorm he’s made for himself. It’s logical considering his image is hurting. He and his family’s publicist are likely going to try to do whatever they can to save what’s left of his public image.
Though if the best excuse that the Duggar family publicist could come up with is “porn addiction,” then the publicists isn’t doing his or her job well. Instead of offering a lame excuse and heading to rehab, Duggar should own up to his mistakes like a man and teach himself how to say, “No.”
John Gavin Harp is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from St. Francisville, Louisiana. You can reach him on Twitter @SirJohnGavin.