Joy-Anna Duggar Reveals the Modesty Dress Code Rules the Duggar Boys Had to Follow for Swimwear

Oct 19, 2024

Joy-Anna Forsyth (née Duggar) revealed the shocking modesty dress code rules that parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar forced their sons to follow.

While appearing on the Wednesday, October 17, episode of the “Unplanned Podcast,” Joy-Anna’s husband, Austin Forsyth, stated that she grew up in a world where “you swim fully clothed.” Austin elaborated that the boys wore a “T-shirt, blue jeans, no shorts” while swimming.

Joy-Anna, 26, then confirmed that her husband’s claims were correct, adding that Michelle, 58, and Jim Bob, 59, eventually “loosened up” on their rules. “My brothers would wear jeans for the longest time until probably the last, I don’t know, ten years maybe,” she said.

Cohost Matt Howard admitted he was surprised by the rule, though his wife, Abby Howard, pointed out that the Duggar parents were “consistent” by enforcing strict dress codes for both the boys and girls.

“They had this standard because they didn’t want guys showing their thighs and so they were like, ‘OK, and girls either,’” Joy-Anna explained about her parents’ mindsets, pointing out that shorts were “on the line.”

She added that her brothers “didn’t even wear shorts” until she was about 15 or 16 years old.

Austin, 30, said that he had a “huge impact” on the Duggar boys during their childhoods, explaining that they started showing more skin because he would take his shirt off when they would go swimming. However, Joy-Anna reminded Austin that he would also be “respectful” of her parents’ rules while spending time with the Duggar kids.

The Duggar girls were infamously raised to dress modestly, and they weren’t allowed to wear pants or show any skin. However, many of the sisters have since started wearing pants and have opened up about their decision to go against their parents’ dress code.

In Jinger Vuolo (née Duggar) and husband Jeremy Vuolo’s 2021 book, The Hope We Hold, she explained Michelle’s reasoning behind the strict dress code.

“My mom had always dressed us girls in skirts and dresses, a standard that was taken from Deuteronomy 22:5, which says, ‘A woman shall not wear a man’s garment,” Jinger, 30, wrote at the time. “Modesty was a huge topic in our house, and we believed that wearing skirts instead of pants was a central part of being modest. But I wanted to discover for myself what the Bible had to say.”

After taking the opportunity to explore her faith on her own terms, Jinger explained that she decided it wasn’t a sin for women to wear pants. “Since Jeremy and I had begun studying Scripture together, I had become more aware of the different beliefs and doctrines Christians held,” she said. “I realized that not everyone interpreted different passages of Scripture the way I always had, and I wanted to find out why.”

Jinger noted that she “had a set of standards that [she] took as givens” during her childhood, though her “convictions” changed as she grew up. “Modesty isn’t only about what you wear. It’s about the position of your heart,” the former Counting On star continued, adding that she also “never found a passage specifically forbidding women from wearing pants.”