Sex Scandal America

David Rosen is a culture and media critic who lives in New York City. David is author of the groundbreaking book, Off-Hollywood: The Making & Marketing of Independent Films (Grove, 1990), originally commissioned by the Sundance Institute and the Independent Feature Project. It is considered a “bible” of American independent filmmaking. David earned a B.A. in Philosophy from City College and an M.A. in American Labor Studies from Rutgers University. His publications on politics, culture and sex include:

“System Failure in the Garrido Case: Sex Offenders, Media Hype and the Bureaucracy,” CounterPunch, September 18-20, 2009.

“The Silent Slaughter: Sex Wars and Nation Building in Iraq,” CounterPunch, August 28-30, 2009.

“Sexual Torture, Yet Again: Will We Ever Know the Complete Truth?,” CounterPunch, August 14-16, 2009.

“Shouts From the Gallery: The Sotomayor Hearings and the Culture Wars,” CounterPunch, July 15, 2009.

“Cry, Hypocrite, Cry: Politicians and America’s Grand Tradition of Sex Scandals,” CounterPunch, June 26-28, 2009.

“Porn Wars: One Step Forward, Too Many Steps Backward in the Culture Wars,” CounterPunch, May 22-24, 2009.

“Torture: What is Acknowledged and What Remains Unknown,” CounterPunch, May 15-17, 2009. Available at:

“Secret Government Plans to Suppress Civil Uprisings,” Z Magazine, April 2009. Available at:(subscription required)

“Obama’s First Amendment Challenge? Sexting: the Latest Innovation in Porn,” CounterPunch, March 25, 2009.

“Nails in the Coffin: Last Gasps of the Culture Wars?,” CounterPunch, January 30-February 1, 2009.

“A New Sexual Agenda: Nine Proposals for an End to the Culture Wars,” CounterPunch, November 28-30, 2008.

“The Sexual Politics of Sarah Palin,” CounterPunch, September 27-28, 2008.

“One Billion Pills Later: Viagra at 10,” CounterPunch, September 20-21, 2008.

“The Culture Wars Are Over: But Culture Warriors Still Terrorize America,” CounterPunch, August 23-24, 2008.

“Teen Prostitution in America:  Looking for Safe Harbor,” CounterPunch, August 2-3, 2008.

“Sexual Terrorism: The Sadistic Side of Bush’s War on Terror,” CounterPunch, May 15, 2008.

“The New Texas Two-Step: Polygamy & State Regulation of Sexual Life,” CounterPunch, April 19-20, 2008.

“‘The Hard Hand of War’: Rape as an Instrument of Total War,” CounterPunch, April 4, 2008.

“Honour killings: An expression of immigrant alienation,” Eureka Street (Australia), March 19, 2008.

“Playing the Race Card: Barack Obama, Love Across the Color Line & Political Dirty Tricks,” CounterPunch, February 27, 2008.

“The Great Disappearing Act: 2008 Presidential Candidates & the Politics of Sex,” CounterPunch, January 23, 2008.

“Porn in the Closet?: Mitt Romney’s Secret Life as a Pornographer,” CounterPunch, December 20, 2007.

“War on terror fosters US anti-immigrant hysteria,” Eureka Street (Australia), December 13, 2007.

“Senior Sex: The Real Sexual Life of Aging Americans,” CounterPunch, November 24-25, 2007.

“The Scarlet Hypocrites: Republicans, Christians and the All-American Politics of Adultery,” CounterPunch, November 17-18, 2007.

“U.S. Gets Tough with Undocumented Immigrants,” Countercurrents, November 7, 2007.

“Deviants on Parade: Folsom Street Fair and America’s 4th Sexual Revolution,” CounterPunch, October 20-21, 2007.

“Troop Maneuvers: Women Warriors & the War on Terror,” Z Magazine, October 2007.

“Slugger Sex: Athletes, Violence & Male Sexuality,” CounterPunch, September 22-23, 2007.

“The GOP’s Outed All-Stars: The Forced Freeing of Gay Men from the Republican Closet,” CounterPunch, August 29, 2007.

“The Case of Genarlow Wilson:  Racism, Justice and Age-of-Consent Laws in America,” CounterPunch, August 14, 2007.

“America’s Top Ten Sex Scandals:  James Buchanan, the First Gay President, and Other Tales of Sex and Power in Washington,”CounterPunch, August 1, 2007.

“Moral Hypocrisy on the Hill, Again:  The Christian Right, Sexual Scandal and the Sexual Pleasures of the Courtesan,” CounterPunch, July 17, 2007.

“The Hidden Cost of War: Genital Injuries, Prosthetic Devices and the War on Terror,” CounterPunch, June 23-24, 2007.

“The New Disappeared: Sex Offenders, Civil Confinement & the Resurrection of Evil,” CounterPunch, May 10, 2007.

“An American Obituary: Anna Nicole Smith & the Exploitation of Nature,” CounterPunch, March 24-25, 2007.

“To Cut or Not to Cut: Male Circumcision in America,” CounterPunch, March 2, 2007.

“Pay-to-Play: The Double Life of Prostitution in America,” CounterPunch, January 27-28, 2007.

“Bush’s Domestic Sex Policy: The Teen Abstinence-Only Crusade,” CounterPunch, January 12-14, 2007.

“Bush’s Foreign Sex Policy: Imperialism’s Second Front,” CounterPunch, December 22, 2006.

“Made in China: The Global Trade in Sex Toys,” CounterPunch, December 2-3, 2006.

“Those Who Preach in Glass Cathedrals: Rev. Ted Haggard & the Eclipse of Evangelical Fury,” CounterPunch, November 15, 2006.

“Perversions of Power: Mark Foley & the Bush Administration,” CounterPunch, October 27-29, 2006.

“Sex Panic on Capitol Hill: Mark Foley and the Politics of Sex in America,” CounterPunch, October 10, 2006.

“Sex & the City of Orgies,” a book review of Sex in the City: An Illustrated History (by Alison Maddex) and NYCSEX: How New York City Transformed Sex in America (New York Museum of Sex), Sexuality and Culture (Winter, 2004).