Why is anyone surprised that Rolling Stone would flub a rape story?  Since when did a magazine that borders on – and, indeed, crosses over into – pornography become a trusted source for matters involving women and sexual assault?

For over four decades, Rolling Stone has spilled thousands of gallons of ink glorifying the hedonistic, misogynistic culture of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.  Its covers have been adorned with nude men and women – sometimes together.  Pornography is a regular topic, and it’s almost always put in a positive light.

In April of this year, Rolling Stone did a near-4,000-word exposé on the infamous Miriam Weeks – aka Belle Knox – the Duke freshman who decided to pay for college with a career in the porn industry.  Describing America’s reaction to the news, the author declares, “On the one hand, said some, why shouldn't a consenting adult engage in a perfectly legal profession in order to better herself through higher learning? And what right does society have to tell women what to do or not do with their bodies, anyway? But, on the other hand, you know, WTF?”  As if those of us who stand aghast at Miss Weeks’s decision can manage only “WTF?”

I won’t link to the piece.  It’s full of vulgarities and perversions, and it paints as rosy a picture as possible for a still teenage girl who has prostituted herself to the point that her first scene as a porn star was described as follows:

I remember getting naked, and the guy said, ‘You have cuts on your legs. You're a cutter.’ He could tell I had written the word ‘fat’ in my thigh, so he started calling me fat.” Once they called “action,” she was pushed to the ground and slapped. “And I said, ‘Stop, stop, stop. No, no.’ And then they stopped, and they were like, ‘We have to keep going.’

And I was like, ‘Just please don't hit me so hard.’ But it went on like that, me getting hit, pushed, spit on. I was being told I was fat, that I was a terrible feminist, was going to fail all my classes, was stupid, dumb, a slut. But I got through it. You know how you kind of zone out sometimes? I just disassociated.’

She just “disassociated.”  One of the great lies of the porn industry, whether a participant or a consumer, is that one can simply “disassociate” such activity from the rest of one’s life.  In other words, under liberalism, porn consumption or participation is just like the consumption or participation in an abortion – it’s no big deal.

Rolling Stone was so impressed with Miss Weeks that, just two weeks prior to running the disastrous “A Rape on Campus” piece, it published her defense of prostitution in its opinion section.  That’s right: a publication that wants us to take it seriously when it comes to a matter as grave as rape devoted a part of its opinion pages to a barely-out-of-high-school 19-year-old who, in addition to now devoting her life to porn, has also added “prostitution apologist” to her résumé.  Miss Weeks informs us that prostitutes are only trying to make an “honest living,” and we should avoid the notions of “abused hookers and human traffickers” that are so often associated with prostitution.

Unsurprisingly, Miss Weeks could hardly be more wrong.  Prostitutes are a tragic example of what often results when women use their bodies as a means to an end.  Prostitutes are more likely than any other group of women ever studied to be, among many other terrible things, victims of rape and homicide. 

In 2008, Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times pointed out that “[t]he mortality data for prostitutes is staggering.”  According to a study by The American Journal of Epidemiology, the “workplace homicide rate for prostitutes” is 51 times that of the next most dangerous occupation for women – working in a liquor store.  The average age of death of the prostitutes in the study was 34.  The Journal concluded, “Women engaged in prostitution face the most dangerous occupational environment in the United States.”

Why are men more violent toward prostitutes?  Because in prostitution, a woman’s humanity is removed.  She becomes little more than a commodity to be consumed.  Thus, a very unhealthy attitude toward women in general is fostered.  Studies have shown that men who regularly use prostitutes are more likely to be sexually aggressive with women who are not prostitutes.

Of course, in pornography, women (and men) are also commodities to be consumed.  Gail Dines, a highly regarded academic, author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, and considered “the world's leading anti-pornography campaigner,” concludes that “the earlier men use porn, the more likely they are to have trouble developing close, intimate relationships with real women.”

Dines adds that “[s]ome of these men prefer porn to sex with an actual human being. They are bewildered, even angry, when real women don't want or enjoy porn sex.”  Of course, such anger often results in violence.  Dines also notes that “porn sex” is becoming increasingly violent (as Miss Weeks’s experience demonstrates).

“We are now bringing up a generation of boys on cruel, violent porn,” Dines says, “and given what we know about how images affect people, this is going to have a profound influence on their sexuality, behavior and attitudes towards women.”  In Dines’s research, she has found that the prevalence of porn means that men are becoming desensitized to it.  Thus, men are getting caught in the vicious cycle of looking for images that are ever more harsh, violent, and degrading toward women.

Ms. Dines goes on to describe images that are too horrible to mention here.  “To think that so many men hate women to the degree that they can get aroused by such vile images is quite profound,” she concludes.  Additionally, Dines points out that “[p]ornography is the perfect propaganda piece for patriarchy. In nothing else is their hatred of us quite as clear.”

Yet women like Miss Weeks ignorantly and defiantly conclude that it’s the “conservative Bible Belt culture of the South” that makes a “highly misogynistic and oppressive atmosphere for women.”

In early 2013, the insufferable Lena Dunham, doing her best Miley Cyrus imitation on the cover, also had a spread in Rolling Stone.  Dunham, when she’s not writing (and performing in) TV shows and books that promote and glorify abortion, casual sex, drug use, and everything else that makes a liberal’s life complete, also takes topless selfies in support of the abortion mill known as Planned Parenthood.

Demonstrating that, for liberals, not all rapes and rapists are created equal, it seems that Planned Parenthood is also in the business of protecting pedophiles.  A recent investigation reveals that girls as young as 10 were taken by their abusers to Planned Parenthood facilities for abortions and birth control.  Because Planned Parenthood staff failed to report the crimes, the sexual abuse continued for years.  Some girls were brought repeatedly for abortions, yet no questions were asked.

Earlier this year, the pro-life group Live Action caught Planned Parenthood giving dangerous and violent sexual advice to girls as young as 15.  According to American Thinker’s Drew Belsky, who as Live Action’s communications director at the time, “[a]s viewers can see in our preview, Planned Parenthood has an institutional policy of endorsing and recommending dangerous sexual behaviors to underage girls. These include whipping, beating, breaking the skin, and asphyxiation. Remember, the counselors in these videos believe that they are talking to a 15-year-old girl.”

“Whipping, beating, breaking the skin, and asphyxiation” – sounds something like what often occurs during a rape.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, in USA Today, recently pointed out more liberal hypocrisy when it comes to rape.  Terry Bean, the co-founder of the largest pro-homosexual advocacy organization in America, the Human Rights Campaign, was recently arrested and indicted on two felony counts of third-degree sodomy and one count of third-degree sexual abuse after allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old boy he met online last year.

Bean is also co-founder of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and is a major donor to the National Democratic Committee and a major financial supporter of Democrats across the U.S., including Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama.  Bean has made multiple trips to the White House and has even been on Air Force One.  In other words, on issues related to homosexuality, Bean has the ear of virtually every leader in the Democratic Party. 

Rolling Stone, Lena Dunham, Planned Parenthood, and other such liberals to whom “the narrative” is the priority can never be trusted to tell the whole story when it comes to matters as grave as rape.  Worse, the sexual perversions that plague our culture are the direct result of the efforts of liberals across the U.S  – from our campuses to our courts.  In other words, on sexual assault, liberals are mourning a culture that they helped to create.

Trevor Grant Thomas: At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.   Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World.  tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com