After admitting to sexting with porn actresses, taking a leave of absence from teaching and attempting suicide, American pornography professor Hugo Schwyzer is living in self-imposed exile under the supervision of his mother in Carmel, California.
In a revelatory interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation, Schwyzer explained that the the fame he received from teaching a class about pornography and interacting with porn stars worsened his bipolar disorder, causing him to stray repeatedly from his marriage and eventually suffer a nervous breakdown.
Though mental illness fueled these actions, Schwyzer said it was his own fault for not managing his condition.
“It’s your job to take your medication and go to therapy,” he said. “You can’t use your mental illness as an excuse.”
Schwyzer described his current condition as “safe but unwell.” He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, and is taking Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Klonopin, Seroquel and lithium to manage his mood.
A tenured professor of history and gender studies, he has taught at Pasadena City College in California since 1993. He has taught several classes on pornography and sexuality — most recently “Navigating Pornography” last spring.
The class was controversial. Schwyzer entertained his students by inviting real porn actors and actresses to address the class — including James Deen, porn’s most famous recent male star.
But Schwyzer now claims that he was unqualified to teach the class, and manipulated his way into a position of authority on pornography, gender and sex.
“I was not qualified to teach any gender studies class,” he said “The fact that I did so well at times is due to diligence and grace, not my formal education. Bottom line: I used charm and certainty to get what I wanted.”
Schwyzer admits that the fame went to his head. He started texting sexual messages and pictures of himself in, and beginning in January, engaged in extramarital affairs with several women and one man. Some were in the porn business, and none were students, he said.
Deen’s visit was something of a turning point. The world-famous porn star radiated sexual energy from the moment he set foot in the classroom, and many of the students confessed to having sexual feelings for Deen. So did their professor.
“I was sexually attracted to [Deen],” said Schwyzer. “Sex is combustible. He has a legitimate charisma that is sexual.”
He began sexting with one of his contacts in the porn world, a 27-year-old woman who takes off her clothes for an internet video channel, about the prospect of having a threesome with Deen in front of the entire class. The woman eventually leaked the text messages, which included sexual pictures of Schwyzer, to the media.
“My dick is on the Internet for as long as there is an Internet,” he said.
The humiliation led to Schwyzer’s meltdown, and eventually, his attempted suicide on August 1st.
For now, he is on extended leave from PCC until his mental illness is back under control.
His personal life, however, may not be fixable. Once his infidelities were made public, his wife separated from him.
“She is humiliated and devastated,” he said, adding that his wife had vowed not to become like Huma Abedin, the wife of disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat who was repeatedly caught sexting with young women. Abedin has remained with Weiner, who is still running for mayor of New York despite ongoing revelations about his continued sexting.
Though porn and mental illness proved to be a dangerous combination for the professor, Schwyzer maintained that there is nothing inherently dangerous or corrupting about watching, or teaching, porn.
“The vast majority of people who use porn don’t… engage in the sort of behaviors that I did,” he said.
He likened it to pedophilia among the Catholic priesthood. Just as the priesthood does not create pedophiles, porn does not drive people crazy, he said.
“When a priest molests little boys, liberals say the Catholic Church must change, it must allow priests to marry,” he said. “The conservative Catholic response is we need to do a better job of screening our priests and equipping them with tools to deal with potential pedophiles before they get in the classroom. We are not going to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater, and I say the same things with these courses.”
Still, Schwyzer is well aware of the fact that he turned out to be the wrong person to teach such a course. Anyone who does lecture about porn should “get their sexual house in order,” he said.
“They need to not be leading a double life,” he said.
As for Schwyzer’s own porn class, PCC’s board of trustees expressed skepticism recently that it should ever be offered again. Either way, Schwyzer is never teaching it again. Instead, he will turn to a less controversial topic.
“I’ll still teach Western Civilizations,” he said. “I don’t think you need the same kind of moral authority to lecture on Julius Caesar.”
And you don’t need James Deen.
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