Sunday, August 7, 2011

Tasha's "Epic Put Down of Hugo Schwyzer"

July 22, 2011, Tasha wrote a comment over at No Seriously, What About the Menz, that has been called, an "epic putdown (sic) of Hugo Schywzer."  I quote it, in relevant part, because Tasha succinctly describes in a couple of powerful paragraphs what is so evident from Schwyzer's own writing.

"RE [Hugo Schwyzer]….Im so sick to death of this ineffectual turd. He’s built this image of himself *to* himself and thus completely deluded himself into the belief that he’s this reformed, yet still tragically conflicted, worldly, romantic, saviour of (always young and impressionable) women (who I think he probably culls from his classes…ethics?). The overarching feel, at least for me, is that he sees himself as some kind of Machiavellian daddy who envisions himself as the gentle, yet inherently sexually appealing, guiding hand of these poor wayward and deceived by the patriarchy girls. He strikes me as the type that uses some kind of ass hat line like “let me show you, baby, how a *good* man can love you” *barf*

You take all that, and add it to this latest pseudo scandal (which, you’ll notice, he generated HIMSELF) and Im only left to believe that this was a very deliberate revealing of hubris on his part with the intention of adding to his image of a *good* man – he can point to himself and say “See? I have faults, I’ve sinned, I’ve been a ‘bad-boy’ and seen the light! Ive had my day of enlightenment through feminism, and now Im like an effing prophet sent down from on high to guide the little (no doubt attractive, young, impressionable, sexually available, easy to impress) lambs away from the big bad (similarly aged, way more appropriate, probably without hidden agenda for self promotion) wolves and, hey, if they see me as some sort of sexual svengali, well shucks its not my fault”

I recently had a brief twitter correspondence with Schwyzer.  So, I am going to tone down the rhetoric, like replacing weird, with eccentric and the like.  I recently did a scanning survey of his old blog, hugoboy.blogspot.com. There can be no doubt that Hugo Schwyzer is an eccentric dude.  I won't say creepy, because I think that is an unfortunate gendered term thrown at men to socially isolate them.  But, he is eccentric.  He is man who got himself circumcised at thirty-seven (37) as a gift to his future wife:

“…when I met the woman who is now my wife and fell in love with her, I began to wish that I could offer her something radically new about me.  And it occurred to me one day that getting circumcised would be something tangible I could do to provide an outer manifestation of my sexual rebirth.   My wife would thus be the only woman with whom I had made love with that particular penis, as it were…”

His vanity is evident by the number of times he posts about "ratemyprofessor.com", and how very personally he takes the comments there.  He informs us:

"It’s been nearly two years since I “won” the honor (however dubious) of being named “America’s Hottest Professor” by the Ratemyprofessors website." 

He reminds his readers no fewer than four times over a two year period about his hotness award.  By his own calculation, he's written, either directly or tangentially, about ratemyprofessors.com, nineteen times. He writes that his wife can probably beat him up, and that he's suffered mental illness.  He writes at least three times about people's perceptions that he is gay.  He writes a lot about religion and the youth group he mentors, All Saints.  He's done sex-ed presentations with the children of All Saints.  He's written about "boy crushes" and "man dates."  He wrote about the odor of boys at camp:

"...I've spent a lot of time sleeping in cabins (and on the floors of our youth center at church) with boys all around.  As any male youth leader will tell you, there's nothing quite like the scent of a boys' bunk house first thing in the morning on the second or third day of a retreat, when most of the guys -- including the youth leaders -- have not bothered to shower!   (It's amazing, really, the odors that pour forth from eleven sleeping male bodies in one cramped space!)..."

When he was younger, he generally went to gay bars in West Hollywood.  He hates pornography, loves running and boxing, and his position on MRA's has evolved from disagreeing with them but "admiring" their fight, to outright hostility. These are all interesting, I suppose.  But the most telling repeated topic he writes about is directly relevant to Tasha's post.  Although, he spends a significant part of his old blog telling his readers that he isn't sexually attracted to his students (although he "falls in love" with some of them) he has, by my own count written on the topic of "older men/younger women" no less than eleven (11) times, the last being April 1, 2011.  These posts are uniformly formulated so that Schwzyer can reassure us that such relationships are improper.  But, that's not always how it comes across.

Tasha writes:

"...The overarching feel, at least for me, is that he sees himself as some kind of Machiavellian daddy who envisions himself as the gentle, yet inherently sexually appealing, guiding hand of these poor wayward and deceived by the patriarchy girls..."

This is the feeling I get from reading some of his "older men/younger women" blog posts.  Here are some examples:

"...I'm convinced that young girls badly need the presence of loving older men who are not parents or relatives, but who are still fundamentally safe..." (Link).

"And I'm not sure it's reasonable to ask all men to refrain from exploring romantic relationships with women who are significantly younger...Kate's letter reminds me that it's even more unreasonable to ask all young women (provided they are legally adults) only to date men who are no more than five years older than themselves...I've seen many, many disastrous relationships between young women and much older men.  But to be honest, I've also seen a few such relationships that were marvelous, sparkling, honest, mutually rewarding, and long-lasting." (Link)

"...And part of closing those doors is loving younger women as our daughters, not as gullible potential partners who offer us the chance to believe in our own immortality just a little longer..." (Link)

"...Given this culture of young male immaturity...where else can a Scarlett look save to older men?...While some older men she will encounter may have a sexually predatory agenda, and others may be looking for someone who won't "call them on their crap", some may indeed be ready and willing to give her what she needs in every sense and receive from her what she has to offer..." (Link)

To be fair, these quotes are taken out of context.  But, looking over Hugo Boy's former blog, there just seem to be too many posts on youth and sexuality; the sexuality of his students; flirting; and how to deal with students who have crushes on him.  I write a blog that is almost explicitly sexual, and not once since 2006 have I written about the sexuality of young people.  I think Tasha may be on to something.

5 comments:

  1. Wasn't he diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder at one point? It seems to fit the pattern of his behaviour.

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  2. This guy just needs to STOP ...

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  3. "...I'm convinced that young girls badly need the presence of loving older men who are not parents or relatives, but who are still fundamentally safe..."

    If he is not saying "look at me young girls, I'm safe come to me" he is saying "I am convinced that women need the chaperon system".

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  4. Aww thanks ma99ie!

    Hugo makes me shudder...and not in the way he'd probably like to.

    catalogue- I think that he's definitely saying "look at me young girls, I'm safe come to me", and he's very cleverly set himself up so that if his ethics are questioned, he will just default to the chaperon system you mention

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  5. You need to see the latest little tidbit to come out. He tried to kill an ex...and it's all about him, of course.

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