Pro-foreskin protesters to target Oprah at Hamilton appearance

A Vancouver activist is organizing protests against Oprah Winfrey, who is set to make three appearances in Ottawa, Montreal and Hamilton this week.

The issue: the celebritys endorsement of an anti-aging cream called TNS Recovery Complex made by SkinMedica, which contains skin cells called fibroblast that are derived from male foreskin.

Winfrey endorsed the product on her talk show, which ended in 2011.

How would Oprah respond if a skin cream for men hit the market that was made using cells from the genitalia of little girls? I think she would be absolutely disgusted and appalled, and rightly so. So its crazy that shes doing the opposite, said Glen Callender of the pro-foreskin advocacy group the Canadian Foreskin Awareness Project.

We think its extremely hypocritical and distasteful that Oprah Winfrey who is herself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and an outspoken opponent of female genital mutilation at the same time uses and promotes a product that wouldnt exist if not for the forcible genital mutilation of boys, he added.

Callender organized a protest when Winfrey appeared at a sold-out event in Vancouver on Jan. 24. The protest received international coverage.

The former talk-show star and international media mogul has upcoming shows in Ottawa on April 10, Montreal on April 11 and Hamilton on April 13.

SkinMedica founder Dr. Richard Fitzpatrick has previously stated that while an ingredient in the anti-wrinkle cream is derived from foreskin fibroblast, the cells are grown from a single foreskin obtained more than 20 years ago.

Initi! ally, there was a misunderstanding and people thought we were actually grinding up the foreskin. So, there was a lot of snickering and laughing about people putting this foreskin product on their face, Fitzpatrick said.