‘Welcome to Plathville’: Ethan Plath is Afraid Olivia Plath’s Piercing Will Interfere With Sex Positions

Welcome to Plathville star Ethan Plath and his wife, Olivia Plath, both felt stifled and wanted to break away from their Christian fundamentalist homeschooled upbringing. After getting married in 2018, the 22-year-olds began to branch out and try new things.

But, on the most recent episode of TLC’s Welcome to Plathville, Ethan admitted that he wasn’t always thrilled about each and every one of his wife’s adventurous plans. Her decision to get a navel piercing didn’t sit well with him – for one very specific reason.

Ethan admitted piercings weren’t ‘his thing’

Both Olivia and Ethan were raised in large, homeschooling families with laundry lists of rules and guidelines for their kids – especially when it came to modesty and appearance. Piercings, tattoos, and other body modification were not on the table in their conservative environment.

After venturing out on her own and getting married, Olivia wanted to explore the world of body modification and alter her appearance somewhat to reflect her newfound independence. She started out with a nose piercing and wanted to add a navel piercing to the mix as well.

“Life is short,” the Welcome to Plathville star told her skeptical husband on the most recent episode. “You’re supposed to do fun things.”

“Like poke a bunch of holes in yourself?” Ethan joked in response, making it clear he wasn’t totally into the idea.

As for Ethan, he told TLC producers he didn’t like many body piercings and didn’t tend to find them attractive. While he wasn’t totally opposed to the idea, it just wasn’t “his thing,” he confessed.

Olivia told Ethan she didn’t want to be controlled by any man after her patriarchal upbringing

Ethan acknowledged that he would never think he had a right to tell his wife what to do with her body – or anything else, for that matter. Still, the Welcome to Plathville star hinted that he wished she would take his desires more into account.

“I know, for me, if there was something that I wanted to do to my body, if you didn’t like it, I wouldn’t do it,” Ethan told Olivia.

But Olivia didn’t feel the same way. The 22-year-old explained that she had grown up in an environment where men were expected to tell women what to do. Now, any attempt to do so on her husband’s part didn’t sit well with her. She made it a point to make her own choices, independent of others’ input.

“Growing up in a patriarchal circle where the man always had to tell you ‘yes’ before you could do anything, it rubs me the wrong way,” the Welcome to Plathville star explained.

In fact, Olivia revealed, hearing “no” now, especially from a male figure in her life, made her want to do something even more.

The ‘Welcome to Plathville’ stars disagreed about the fate of their sex life as a result

But Ethan and Olivia seemed to be at odds about more than a mere piercing. The Plath family’s oldest son had a specific fear about the aftermath of his wife’s piercing: that is, that their sex life might fall by the wayside.

“That means we won’t be able to have sex or anything for a long time,” Ethan said when his wife reminded him she might have some tenderness and soreness afterward. “It’ll be like maternity leave.”

Olivia rolled her eyes at her husband’s concern, laughing, “Oh my God! This is why we don’t have a kid yet. You’re gonna have a cryfest when you can’t have sex for eight weeks.”

The young Welcome to Plathville couple also tried to figure out how they could keep the spark and adventure alive in the bedroom. For Ethan, it seemed to be a much bigger area of concern than it was for his wife.

“Once Olivia gets her navel pierced, there’s probably gonna be a couple of sex positions that’ll be off the table for a couple of weeks,” Ethan said worriedly.

“Except there’s lots more, as long as you don’t touch it,” Olivia reminded Ethan, laughing at how much this issue seemed to matter to him. “So it’s not really a big deal.”

Her husband gave her a look that suggested he did not agree, to say the least. Ultimately, she did go through with her plans for a belly button piercing, so it looks like they worked it all out in the end.