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

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.”