Radical feminism and “progressive” ideology laid the foundation for the widespread sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment that finally is coming to light.

Two of the most notorious leftist “champions” who propelled women into a culture where sexual exploitation of every kind now seems to be the norm are Hugh Hefner and Betty Friedan.

As history’s most notable abuser of women through his pornographic empire, Hugh Hefner ushered in the acceptability of treating women like chattel. Betty Friedan, the shrill voice of the radical feminist ideology that crushed the notion that men should treat women like ladies, became Hefner’s unwitting ally.

As Friedan and other ignorant feminists including Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Smeal demanded that women be treated like men, American females as a whole eventually got what the “feminazis” asked for.

The sexual liberation that feminists advocated at first was confined to Hollywood and liberal circles, resulting in decades of sexual objectification and abuse.

As the entertainment culture became ever more decadent and perverse, conservatives and Christians fled Hollywood en masse. Of course, the exodus meant that the only folks pumping out entertainment were those who believed and lived according to the sordid liberal worldview. Like any cancer left untreated, the disease eventually spread into virtually every American home through television, magazines, advertisements and the Internet.

And given that sexual cravings are common to all humans, the continual diet of immoral sexual material in massive amounts quickly infected the psyches and behaviors of people from all persuasions, political parties and faith groups.

Numerous Christian ministries have been established over the years to help free congregants from the clutches of pornography and sexual addictions. From PromiseKeepers.org to CovenantEyes.com to TruthXChange.com, most denominations are recognizing the ills of sexual perversion and opening their hearts and doors to the abused, as well as attempting to fight the incessant tidal waves of cultural sewage that are poisoning our country.

But even as the church continues to rescue individuals seeking help from sexual addictions, Hollywood and the liberal elite have made no such effort. In fact, they purposefully opened the floodgates of pornography and the normalization of sexual perversions and abuse of every kind. Now the entire nation is drowning in the sludge.

Modern feminists not only tolerate the objectification and harassment of women, they encourage it by preaching an ideology that says it is a woman’s “right” to do whatever she wants to with her body, including engaging in prostitution. (Read Ashley McGuire’s book Sex Scandal for more on such self-destructive feminist ideology.)

We can thank feminists for creating a climate ripe for harassment when they wrongly taught women that equality included the acceptance of and participation in crude behavior. And immoral, liberal men were all too eager to throw gentlemanly manners to the wind, embracing their newfound liberation to behave any way they wanted. As evidenced in recent headlines, hypocrites and bullies of all political persuasions were quick to follow.

(A special note here to men like Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Harvey Weinstein, Anthony Weiner and Congressman Joe Barton: Contrary to the feminist lie that says women and men are just alike, although the vast majority of men might find photos of a naked female body exciting, women are not impressed by displays or photos of your genitals, you moronic ding-a-lings. In fact, the collective female response is “ewwwww!”)


Until feminism and progressivism reared their ugly heads, just about every woman in America knew she could go running to a trustworthy man for help when another man sexually harassed her. And the heroic father, husband or boyfriend would quickly rise up to protect her honor by tracking down the abuser and punching his lights out.

But the feminist is taught to turn to no man for help. And who would she run to anyway? What progressive male is suddenly going to stand up for a woman who constantly demands to conquer all, all by herself? As we’ve seen in recent confessions from those who knew about “open secrets,” it seems that, in the end, no one was willing to stand up to the predators.

Why don’t we see feminists taking measures to protect other unsuspecting females from the pigs? Megyn Kelly comes to mind as just one who was perfectly willing to tolerate and/or accommodate disgusting, abusive behavior in order to climb the ladder of success, leaving in her wake scores of vulnerable, younger women to be preyed upon.

Charlie Rose’s executive producer Yvette Vega swept complaints about his sordid behavior under the rug for years, basically instructing young interns to put up with it. And with the firing of Matt Lauer this week and the resurfacing of a video tape of Katie Couric joking about his habit of repeatedly pinching her rear end, we now know that she obviously didn’t care about what else he might be doing to whom.

Feminist “champions” are revealing that they are willing to be enablers of sexual predators when it suits their careers. I guess we really shouldn’t be surprised at such feminist selfish and hypocritical behavior. After all, they demand that they have an unmitigated right to kill little girls in the womb if the preborn females interfere with their education or life plans. So much for equality or equal protection under the law.

The modern media culture of progressive sexual liberation, sexual obsession and perversion has created a nation filled with abusers and victims.

The next column in this series examines how this dangerous ideology now is permeating K-12 education, destined to doom our nation’s children to a lifetime of abuse. Unless something drastically changes soon, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Rebecca Hagelin can be reached at [email protected].