Instant Opinion: ‘We need to talk about women’s bodies – without shame’

The Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media, with excerpts from each.

1. Fiona Sturges in The Guardian

on removing the stigma surrounding female anatomy

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We need to talk about women’s bodies – without shame

“It’s absurd that women are still fighting to have these conversations, but fight we must. A self-proclaimed pussy-grabber sits in the White House, content to watch women’s rights being rolled back in Alabama. Closer to home, a man who appears unable to answer how many children he’s fathered hopes to move in to No 10, while his rival for the job has spoken of wanting to halve the current abortion limit to 12 weeks. Meanwhile, women are avoiding cervical smears out of shame; the demand for labiaplasty among teenage girls is rising; and the ‘vaginal hygiene’ business is booming, despite being surplus to requirements (one of the many miracles of vaginas is that they are self-cleaning. See how our to-do list just got shorter!). None of this is good for men either, whose knowledge of female genitalia is first gleaned from pornography; when confronted with the real thing, they are often surprised to find something other than the neat, hairless Barbie vulvas they have seen online.”

2. Gary J Bass in The New York Times

on Donald Trump’s outspoken complaints about the 1951 US-Japan security treaty

Trump’s Ignorant Comments About Japan Were Bad Even for Him

“What could Mr Trump possibly hope to gain from his ignorant, ungrateful and antagonistic behavior? He is unlikely to withdraw from the security treaty. Yet by questioning the alliance with Japan, Mr. Trump encourages North Korea and a rising China to test that bond. His words undercut an essential alliance for no evident reason and erode the stability of a strategic region torn by rivalry. And we are all so used to it by now that it barely registers.”

3. Brian Boyle in The Los Angeles Times

on the chaotic second Democratic primary debate

One Marianne Williamson moon reference was enough. Democrats need a candidate kids’ table

“It took Marianne Williamson wading into bizarre references about New Zealand, the moon and the power of love for me to realize something: The GOP made the right decision in their own overpopulated primary on the road to 2016. Not in whom they chose, of course, but in how they chose. The past two nights of Democratic debates have offered insightful policy discussions, fierce sniping and funny mic gaffes. But they’ve also only made one thing clear: It’s time to separate the contenders from the pretenders; it’s time for the real candidates to share the stage, and for everyone else to be relegated to the kids’ table.”

4. Ross Clark in The Spectator

on the image of drowned Salvadoran migrant Oscar Ramirez and his daughter

The media’s exploitation of this photograph shames the West

“We don’t generally get shown photographs of the dead, even when they might shock government into taking action on road safety or crime, for a very simple reason: it would breach the dignity of the deceased. Very different standards seem to be applied, however, to people from developing countries, who seem to be considered fair game for newspapers which want to attract readers with shocking images.”

5. Philip Collins in The Times

on Labour MPs’ true feelings on Jeremy Corbyn

Labour’s leadership crisis is coming to the boil

“Labour MPs ask themselves all the time how far their loyalty can stretch. The crucial point, in this agony of consideration, is what they owe their loyalty to. They joined the party, even those among them for whom membership was a family heirloom, because it embodied the noble idea of equality. Loyalty to ‘the Labour Party’ is, on closer inspection, loyalty to an idea. The loyalty is at root thoughtful and philosophical, not tribal and political. It therefore follows that, if the new Labour Party no longer owes anything to distinguished scions such as Attlee, Bevin, Bevan, Wilson, Blair and Brown, then the tie of loyalty breaks.”