Those damn women.

One of the men profiled in Jocks: True Stories of America's Gay Male Athletes suffers emptiness and despair because he derives only fleeting pleasures from the drinking, smoking and anonymous sex in which he indulges. Jocks author Dan Woog knows who is to blame for the man's unhappiness: a woman. She forced the young man to frequent places where gay men drink, smoke and try to find partners for anonymous sex. This wicked manipulator of innocents had an accomplice, "another female who also sucked him into the gay bar scene."

Blaming women for what men do is as ancient as Eve and as recent as Yoko, but being time-honored does not make the practice honorable. Woog initially appears to know better, until early in his book when he characterizes women as wielders of sinister powers to lead men astray and, incidentally, paints all gay bars as dens of iniquity so powerful that no one can resist their evil allure.

Unjustly impugning women would scar any book, but it harms this one severely because it contradicts Woog's intent. He proclaims "these stories, after all, are about debunking stereotypes." Well, some stereotypes. Woog chooses to bolster others, including one he recognizes: "One of the enduring myths about homosexuality is that gay men hate women."

Even more galling, it is women who gave to almost every one of the dozens of gay men Woog describes their first support, their earliest and perhaps most important assurances that their attraction to men will not -- or at least should not -- condemn them to being scorned by friends and family. The perfunctory acknowledgements of these women and their invaluable contributions are not enough to balance Woog's off-handed condemnation of nefarious females who drag men to their spiritual dooms.

The sting of encountering such ugliness early in the book (p. 29) lingers as the reader turns each page hoping not to encounter anything similar. Unfortunately, one does encounter a few other unpleasant and unsupportable generalizations. For instance, Woog suggests that having gay men in locker rooms and other sports settings "terrif[ies] straight males who are not secure in their sexuality (in other words, most of them)." He does not explain how he knows what insecurities plague at least 51% of heterosexual men.

Nor does Woog explain why it is relevant in a passing reference to The Washington Times to identify it as "the Moonie-owned Washington Times." There may be reasons to be suspicious of The Unification Church and its founder, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, but Woog cites none of them, leaving room for the suspicion that the Korean-based religious organization is simply too Asian for his tastes. It gets worse. Woog offers no evidence but asserts, "After all, most people in America don't like Moonies. They don't want their kids coached by them. And they certainly don't want them to grow up to be Moonies." That kind of bigotry was as unfair and ugly when it was directed against Roman Catholics or Jews.

There are other stereotypes that Woog promotes, apparently inadvertently, in his attack on anti-gay stereotypes. But given the ugliness of some of his observations, the reader is relieved when the author confines himself to such relatively harmless generalizations as "suburban boys and girls are too polite."

These statements, only a tiny part of Jocks, mar a book that has much to recommend it. Woog's subjects, several gay men who have faced anti-gay sentiments that pervade much of the worlds of amateur and professional sports, speak movingly and with insight about how they have tried to balance being gay with being athletic. Their accounts can be informative and even inspiring, when Woog lets them. Among these is that of a college soccer player who has often attempted suicide because "no one knows how much pain and suffering a gay male athlete goes through. I've spent hours crying in my room because people won't accept me for who I am." Yet this wounded man aspires to be a psychologist so that he can help other gay men and lesbians transcend the difficulties they endure as they find their place in a society that can punish them for being honest about their sexual orientations.

Many of the men Woog profiles have found it easier to achieve that honesty than they'd feared. Their teammates have supported them, their friends have stood by them and their families have affirmed their love. These men understand how recent this kind of acceptance is and they express their appreciation eloquently. Many commit themselves to ensuring the way is easier for future generations of people who are not heterosexual.

Woog's clumsy presentation challenges the reader to find the wheat among the chaff that fills much of the book's 231 pages. Most of his articles appear to be the result of single interviews. Freqently it seems that someone Woog is quoting would have spoken even more eloquently if Woog had come back for other conversations after they'd warmed to the idea of being interviewed. Often a subject speaks for others with whom Woog should have spoken as well. When a coach asserts that because of his efforts to promote tolerance of homosexuality "several coaches had their eyes opened," it would be better to hear that assessment from one of the other coaches whose eyes are alleged to have been shut. Or a young man says that his parents' activism on behalf of gay causes has been "good for them" and one wonders why Woog doesn't allow the parents to say that for themselves.

Woog starts his first article with a brief but harrowing description of how a high school runner is beaten so badly that for the rest of his life he will have a steel plate holding his jaw together. The attackers are other athletes who assume that because the runner's coach is gay, the runner must be gay as well and that demands serious punishment. While it would be interesting to know how the victim feels about the assault against him and the reasons for it, Woog does not present even a single word from him.

On the rare occasions when Woog does talk with people besides his primary subjects, he loses focus when he tries to incorporate their observations. For instance, the book starts with an account of a high school cross-country coach who acknowledges his homosexuality. Woog follows his discussions with the coach with remarks from some of the heterosexual student runners who supported their coach in the face of sometimes violent opposition, but he doesn't return to the coach. The reader is left wondering how he feels about what these students have said about him. Woog's conclusion ("By standing tall and strong -- without moving an inch -- these runners and their coach have won the biggest race of their lives") would be more persuasive if it had been offered by the coach or one of his students.

Reporting is not efficient. It often takes repeated interviews with several sources before one of them offers an invaluable insight or an eloquent phrase that captures what would otherwise take paragraphs to explain. Reporters often have to toss aside most of what they've written or recorded and save only the best bits that convey their subjects' essences. Woog apparently was unwilling to do this extra work, or at least unaware that it was required.

Woog's subjects and his readers deserve better. There is enough good in Jocks to foster hopes that Woog will provide better this fall in Jocks 2.



Recommended: Yes