Interview with Matthew Hess of ‘Foreskin Man’

Foreskin Man .” We sat down with him to talk about that, and his preferred candidates to play Foreskin Man on the big screen.

Who would play Foreskin man in a summer blockbuster?

There has been a lot of speculation about that lately! At this point I don’t have a pick yet. But if Heath Ledger were still alive I think he would have been perfect for the role. For sure it would be a different type of character for him, but he had all of the important traits to play both Miles Hastwick and Foreskin Man. Sadly, Heath is no longer with us.

Are you more interested in ending routine male circumcision or promoting your comic book series?

I’m primarily interested in ending MGM [Male Genital Mutilation], and the Foreskin Man comic book series is a means to achieve that goal. However, I must confess that I find writing comic books to be a lot more fun than writing legislation.

Are you circumcised?

Yes, I was circumcised in a hospital shortly after birth. Almost every other penis I saw growing up was circumcised, too, and for a long time I never even knew that I had been cut.



Does your anti-circumcision stance get you laid more?

It does, but not in the way you might be thinking. Part of being an intactivist involved restoring my own foreskin as much as possible. The nerve endings didn’t grow back, of course, but I was able to completely reverse the keratinization damage by stretching my remaining shaft skin over the glans. When the head of the penis is kept moist and sensitive like nature intended, the result is a significant increase in sensation. The gliding mechanism of the foreskin is restored to some extent, as well. That combination allows me to perform much longer (and more gently) during sex than I could in the past.

What did you mean in your trailer that “They hate us because we are blond”?

Foreskin Man is being subjected to what I feel are racist comments about his Aryan/Nordic appearance. You don’t need to look hard to find those remarks in the press, and the underlying suggestion is that because Foreskin Man has blond hair, he is obviously a Nazi who is bent on destroying Jewish identity. I reject that connotation. Foreskin Man and his alter ego Miles Hastwick are reflective of my own German heritage, and I make no apologies for that. I am proud of who I am. And Foreskin Man is not at war with all Jews any more than he is at war with all doctors. Rather, he is at war with circumcisers who cut children by force. In the first issue the villain is a doctor, and in the second issue the villain is a mohel. Those are the two most common types of circumcisers in the United States. In the third issue of Foreskin Man the focus will be on a different type of circumcision.

What do you hope to gain by engaging in what most people consider to be anti-Jewish imagery and accusations?

As I stated earlier, the images in Foreskin Man #2 are not anti-Jewish any more than the images in Foreskin Man #1 are anti-doctor. Rather, they are anti-mutilation of children. But I admit that the images were intentionally designed to provoke people. The Foreskin Man comics are an attempt to reach people at an emotional level – which is where our true humanity lies.