The Duggars are a family of extremists. There’s not really any way around it. What is perhaps most terrifying, though — or what has stood out to me most in the weeks since the Duggars confirmed that their eldest of 19 children, Josh, molested several of his sisters when he was a teenager — is that their conception of sexual assault isn’t actually so far off from much of the public’s. Their understanding is one that warps consent into a nearly irrelevant factor, and one that’s become all too common. And oh, how far it is from an understanding that actually recognizes and affirms the nuanced reality of sexual violence.

Jim Bob Duggar’s efforts to minimize his son’s abusive behavior offer an extreme example of our views on consent