The word "rape" banned from courtroom

Also, study finds men look at women's faces first -- even when they're naked.

Published June 22, 2007 12:30AM (EDT)

Fan of Necrobabes.com convicted of strangling woman to death. In addition to his membership to the site, which offers "erotic horror for adults," the Texas church leader had conducted Web searches for "asphyxiation."

Judge bans the word "rape" from sexual assault trial. Nebraska District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront granted a request by the defense team to ban the words "rape," "sexual assault," "victim," "assailant" and "sexual assault kit" from the courtroom, reports Dahlia Lithwick. Oh, and jurors won't even be told about the banned words. "You needn't be a radical legal feminist to cringe at the idea of judges ordering rape complainants to obliterate from their testimony any language that signifies an assault," writes Lithwick. "At worst, that judge is ordering her to lie. At best, he is asking her to play at being a human thesaurus: thinking up coded ways to describe to the jury what she believes to have happened."

Eat low-fat yogurt or you'll end up pretty 'n' plump! This Brazilian advertising campaign for low-fat yogurt reimagines classic sexy moments in cinema with fat women. The ad's tag line: "Forget about it. Men's preference will never change. Fit Light Yogurt." Except that, uh, a couple of men (and women) have weighed in on the blog that posted the ads for the word to see, pointing out that these women are kinda hot.

Hey buddy, my eyes are up here. Turns out when looking at a photo of a naked woman, most men look at a her face first before their eyes stray downward, according to a new study. Also, running contrary to common expectations, women tend to look at photos of heterosexual sex longer than men do.

What's not in a name? Numerals. That's what New Zealand authorities told a couple hoping to name their baby "4real." The name request hasn't been officially denied -- they're still debating it with the parents. "4real" is certainly less offensive than two official baby name rejects: "Satan" and "Adolf Hitler."


By Tracy Clark-Flory

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