COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : Taking the Snip Out of Movie Ratings Code

I agree with Robert Radnitz (Counterpunch, July 23) that reform of an absolute and arbitrary ratings code is needed to allow depiction of the most intimate aspects of human life with compassion and sensitivity.

Our filmmakers should be able to depict human sexuality frankly and decently, without fear that their work will be condemned implicitly as pornographic through a questionable and misguided X rating.

I think it is absurd to believe that portrayal of the nude in film is obscene. Let all the censors be banished from our midst, allowing us to judge the value of artistic endeavors according to our conscience and taste. In the United States, the marketplace should be permitted to determine the fate of works of art, not the censor or the uninformed politician.

NORMAN F. BIRNBERG

Long Beach