Coverage (media, not glans)
Circumcision a big deal to foreskin advocate Glen Callender
The Georgia Straight, July 29 2010 p.11
Glen Callender hopes to raise awareness about the issue by using his own body as an example.
Glen Callender wants Canadians to embrace the foreskin, and he’s got a few surprises up his pants to show people why the foreskin isn’t “just the wrapper; it’s the candy”.
“I want to communicate to people how big of a deal circumcision really is,” Callender told the Georgia Straight by phone from Courtenay, B.C.
The founder of the Canadian Foreskin Awareness Project—an advocacy group that wants circumcision performed on male minors to be made illegal in Canada under the Criminal Code—Callender will showcase his foreskin and all the parts that come with it in a tent at the Davie Street Pride Party on Friday (July 30) and the Sunset Beach Pride Festival on Sunday (August 1).
The boisterous 36-year-old will explain the anatomy and function of the foreskin and demonstrate how to clean an uncircumcised penis. Cleanliness is often cited as a reason parents opt to circumcise their sons, but Callender says that parents should have more faith in their kid’s ability to self-groom.
“It is insane that people cut off a part of their son’s anatomy because they don’t think that their kid will be intelligent enough to pull back his foreskin and clean under it,” he explained.
Callender recalls the first time he noticed something different about other guys’ penises. “I remember I was in the pool, and I would see the men and boys who were circumcised, and it didn’t occur to me that they were cut,” he said. “I just looked at them and thought, ‘How the hell are they keeping their foreskins pulled back like that without using their fingers?’ ”
He soon learned about the practice of circumcision—the removal of a fold of skin that covers the head of the penis—and is horrified that the procedure is still legal in Canada.
“It’s simply a human-rights issue,” he said. “You are imposing an amputation of sex organs by force on a child who has no idea what is being done to them.”
But a word to the wise: it won’t be your junior-high sex-ed curriculum on display this weekend.
“People are in for a fantastic dick trick,” Callender said with a chuckle. “I do something with a handful of red seedless grapes that is physically impossible to do with a circumcised penis.”
Read the full article (plus reader comments) here.
Glen Callender says he is horrified that infant circumcision is legal in Canada. Photo by Skye Nott.
* * *
Move afoot to save the foreskin
24Hrs Vancouver, July 23-25 2010 p.4
Online headline: Comedian pushes foreskin education
A local
comedian spent many years
considering what he’d like to
do with his foreskin.
Now he knows.
Having gained inspiration
from the performers behind
Puppetry of the Penis,
Glen Callender will stage
demonstrations to promote
foreskin education, appreciation
and stimulation in a
private tent during Vancouver
Pride festivities.
“It’s not the wrapper, it’s
the candy,” he explained.
“Circumcision removes 75
per cent of the nerves of the
penis. It makes a huge difference
in the sensations a man
will have in his penis through
his life.”
But it’s not just sexual
stimulation Callender is concerned
about.
“Women’s breasts get
cancer a lot more often than
men have serious problems
with their foreskins, but we
would never consider cutting
one off when it’s healthy,” he
said.
“We would wait until
there is a problem, then you
treat the problem and if you
can’t treat the problem then
you go to the extreme of amputation.”
To see and learn much
more, visit the Canadian
Foreskin Awareness Project
at the Davie Street Party on
July 30 and at Sunset Beach
on Aug. 1.
Print article image here. Online version here.
* * *
Foreskin activist calls for genital awareness
The Martlet, Sept 18 2010
Have you ever seen a man put a grape inside his foreskin? How about nine of them? That’s exactly what Glen Callender of the Canadian Foreskin Awareness Project (CAN FAP) does to catch the audience’s attention at the beginning of his foreskin demonstration.
Read the full article (plus reader comments) here.
CAN-FAP founder Glen Callender defends foreskin at Vancouver Pride. Photo by Gemma Karstens-Smith.
* * *
“Was that a grape shooting out of your foreskin?”
Xtra Vancouver, July 1 2010 p.25
Cocked & Loaded by Sean Horlor
One of my picks last column was a trip to visit the Canadian Foreskin Awareness Project at East Side Pride to locate Dr Foreskin/Glen Callender for a more complete education than club bathrooms have so far allowed.
Do you know where you can fit nine red seedless grapes? Dr Foreskin certainly does. He will be demonstrating this same foreskin awareness seminar at the Davie Street Pride Party and Sunset Beach Festival during Pride Week.
A word to the wise: if you do one thing this Pride, it better be this.
You too could sit next to Joan-E while she occasionally caresses your thigh in fear as your boyfriend catches grapes in a plastic bowl, popped one by one out of some stranger’s foreskin.
Warning: flashbacks to Bangkok’s Patpong ping-pong shows are pretty much guaranteed.
Xtra columnist Sean Horlor flanked by Jen and Glen from the Canadian Foreskin Awareness Project. Photo by Doerthe Keilholz. Article image here.
* * *
Foreskin Awareness hits YouTube!
YouTube, June 29 2010
Bonobo3D’s YouTube report on the launch of CAN-FAP’s Foreskin Awareness Booth at East Side Pride:
See the unembedded version of this clip here.
* * *
“The highlight of my weekend was this guy”
Xtra.ca, June 28 2010
Up Your Alley by Sean Horlor
Xtra.ca blogger Sean Horlor reflects on his experience at the CAN-FAP Foreskin Awareness Booth at East Side Pride 2010:
I like to call him Dr Foreskin. Other people like to call him Glen Callender from the Canadian Foreskin Awareness Project. Look at that lab coat and his lensless glasses. If that doesn't make him a doctor, nothing does. I would trust him with my life... I mean foreskin... I mean uhhhhhhh...
Read the full piece (and the many lively reader comments that follow) here.