[.ca] Life Outside: The Signorile Report on Gay Men: Sex, ... (ISBN 0060929049)

From Amazon.com:
Michelangelo Signorile was an outspoken advocate of gay culture whose brush with mortality after engaging in risky sex changed his outlook on life. In Life Outside, Signorile, a columnist for Out magazine, explores the changing lifestyles and mores of gay men through interviewing and surveying hundreds of gays--in the cities, in the country, and everywhere in between. In addition, he provides a fascinating history of gay culture, from the closeted '50s, when most homosexuals found sexual release by "servicing" straight men, through the '70s and '80s, when physical beauty and promiscuity became the hallmarks of gay life.

This Insightful book offers much for reflection:
Signorile's purpose in writing this book is to show that there is not simply one way to be gay, the way propagated by the "urban gay sexual subcultural scene" (described in part one), which demands conformity to a rigid set of unwritten standards and beliefs that defines what one must do to fit in with the gay community. Part two shows how some gay men, although influenced by the "scene," are living in different ways and by different values. I recommend this book to anyone who is uncomfortable with conforming to certain standards of the "scene" and its ideology, and to those who feel like "outsiders" to the gay community just because their values, interests, and lifestyle don't match the gay stereotyical mold of the "scene." I also highly recommend this as a resource to counselors of gay men, as it will help with understanding the dynamics and struggles of those both "in" and 'outside" the "scene." The powerful influence of the "scene" has made me feel different and as an "outsider" both in heterosexual society and in the gay community. I found hope in realizing there are others out there who share my interests and values, and who will accept me for who I am. For this book I am grateful.

The mirror can be painful...:
....Of course this isn't dry and erudite social criticism; it doesn't pretend to be. What it does do is pose some very difficult questions and shed light on some behaviors that gay men (including myself) must address. I have to admit that there were certainly things I did not agree with in Signorile's book. And the repetitveness of terminology and thoughts ocassionally grated, but by and large this book made me pause and think. That, whether passing the muster of pretentious dialectic dogma or not, is a clear representation of the power of an author who is uncovering something that is worth considering. And the fact that many other gay men have responded to this book so powerfully means that it IS speaking to some underlying deep questioning that folks are doing about what we as gay men have become post-Stonewall. As an Ivy- educated young gay urban professional, I am more than capable of distinguishing between what I consider to be great writing or not. And Signorile is not my only choice in the panolpy of authors writing contemporary gay social critcism. However, he is one I will continue to read until the things he says no longer feel/seem relevant to me

Superb analysis of life in the gay male "fast lane.":
Signorile writes an insightful and long-overdue book on the self-destructive nature of current gay male circuit party life. While by no means representative of the gay community as a whole, he makes the very valid point that virtually everyone who is gay and male is affected by the standards promoted by this subgroup. The result is extremely damaging. Those who have attacked this book as intellectually inferior or "sex negative" miss the point. They are attempting to shift the discussion away from what are very ugly truths about much of gay male culture today. Fortunately, Signorile also offers insights into gay men who are choosing to build their lives outside of the gay urban demimonde - a model that is well worth emulating if gay men want to avoid the inevitable waves of disease and infection that are part and parcel of the "fast-lane" lifestyle and culture. A culture, I might add, with extremely distorted "values."

I must read for middle aged gay men.:
This book takes the dark side of gay culture and puts it in your face. You may not agree with every point, but you are challenged to at least take a stance. Some find the writing simplistic and repetitive but I think all agree the reader is forced to spend time with some very uncomfortable issues. For this reason I consider the work worthy of every gay mans attention.

Dangerous Fluff:
I won't go into many of the points of other reviewers, but I found Signorile's view on Gay life and history one of the most disturbing books in recent memory. His confessional, tabloid style reminds me a bit of the kind of "fire and brimstone" preachers one might hear in the mountains where I grew up. They'll enthrall you with all their tales about their "wild" life of hard livin', fast wimmin', and guzzled booze, but, it's OKay, they're saved by the end of the book. Those preachers, of course, counted on the fact that you'd be enthralled by all their tales of moral corruption -- and counted on you not digging too deeply into anything else they had to say. The fact that "Life Outside" is so popular and well received by Gay men speaks sad volumes about a community that is more uncomfortable with itself than it was twenty or thirty years ago. In Signorile's limited world-view, Gay men either lead a life of hell and damnation in urban ghettos or find paradise in rural and suburban upscale niches -- there's no in-between, no subtle shades of gray here. If you're the type of Gay man who finds fullfillment in Gay bowling leagues (and nothing else), sees everyone except your own circle of friends as sleazy and sex-starved, and wishes to pretty much ignore a fascinating mosaic of Gay culture and history, then you'd enjoy this book enormously -- you'll agree with everything Signorile has to say. Those with more discriminating taste (or even just a few brain cells) might pick up a copy of Susan Faludi's "Stiffed" or a book by Daniel Harris instead. If you're just coming out, please, for God's sake don't buy this book -- talk to a real live Gay person and don't listen to drivel from a self-promoting plastic hack.