we're very proud of you Stephanie

The Sylvan Beach Festival was once again in full swing yesterday. Steph did great in the pageant again this year and looked as beautiful as always! The weather was gorgeous -

AND

I was surrounded by the most handsome guys...
(see below... oh how I love being an aunt! lol)

If I've said it once, I've said this a million times in the last four years...

I love being home again...... :-)

Bethany's honors thesis

I am so very proud of my daughter. She is graduating with honors and she did it all on her own!

She rocks... :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~

The 19th annual Symposium will be held on Thursday, April 24, 2008.

A Day at the Movies:
Cinematic Violence and Its Effects on
Masculine Self-Perception and
Patriarchal Ideology among
College-Aged Men

Norris 104, 10:00 AM

Bethany Coston, '08 159
Majors: Sociology, Communication Studies
Hometown: Muskegon, MI

Sponsor(s): Scott Melzer
Support: FURSCA

Abstract:

Men's violence in the United States is widespread. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 1993-2004 men perpetrated 97% of all intimate crimes—homicides, rapes, robberies and assaults by a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend, including same sex relationships. Men aged 15-29 perpetrated the majority of this violence. Scholars have shown that men's violence is not due to popular or essentialist explanations about instincts or testosterone. Instead, this violence is a result of cultural definitions of and expectations for masculinity, power, and control. My research focuses on the culture of patriarchy, how it contributes to violence against women, and how it contributes to violent media. I propose a synthesis of previous theories on men's intimate violence against women, with new hypotheses of the effects of cinematic violence on masculine perception and patriarchal ideology. To study these issues, I surveyed 121 men at Albion College, and half of these men saw a short film reel displaying five of the top grossing films of 2005 and 2006: Spiderman 2, Batman Begins, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, The Punisher, and The Departed. Comparative analyses were done between these groups to assess the extent of movie violence's influence on certain ideological opinions and violent behaviors. While much of the multivariate data was rendered useless due to sampling error, correlational analysis revealed interesting relationships that provide potential insight into the types of violence men perpetrate (incidental, friends vs. partners), reasons for violence (emotional, media, etc.), and what seems to be a distinguishable difference between certain kinds of physical violence (roughhousing vs. fighting). Future research should lend itself to in-depth analysis of these issues.

http://www.albion.edu/library/Isaac/symposium_detail.asp?GroupID=159

Happy 19th Birthday Joel!

As I wish you a happy birthday this morning, I notice that I can't find a recent pic of us together. We barely have any pictures at all! What's up with that? lol

I already know... ;-)
I'll just post one of you and your sister... and one of you and you know who...

I love you Joel... happy birthday! I hope your day is wonderful...
Mom

Happy 22nd Birthday Tommy!

To my third child and second son ~

I hope your day is blessed, your way is peaceful and your May brings you down to see me! lol

:-)

22 years old... watch out world!
Have a wonderful day Tommy...
I love you,
Mom

Happy 22nd Birthday Bethany!

My baby girl turns 22 today... I can't believe it!
I'll save the story for the phone call...

I love you honey,
Mom

Anaïs Nin

Quotes

• "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
• "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."
• "This diary is my kief, hashish, and opium pipe. This is my drug and my vice."
• "...for no one has ever loved an adventurous woman as they have loved adventurous men."
• "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
• "I do not want to be the leader. I refuse to be the leader. I want to live darkly and richly in my femaleness. I want a man lying over me, always over me. His will, his pleasure, his desire, his life, his work, his sexuality the touchstone, the command, my pivot. I don't mind working, holding my ground intellectually, artistically; but as a woman, oh, God, as a woman I want to be dominated. I don't mind being told to stand on my own feet, not to cling, be all that I am capable of doing, but I am going to be pursued, fucked, possessed by the will of a male at his time, his bidding."
• "How wrong is it for women [sic] to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than set out to create it herself."
• "I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing."

List of works

• D.H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study
• Collages
• Winter of Artifice
• Under a Glass Bell
• House of Incest
• Delta of Venus
• Little Birds
• Cities of the Interior, in five volumes:
  • Ladders to Fire
  • Children of the Albatross
  • The Four-Chambered Heart
  • A Spy in the House of Love
  • Seduction of the Minotaur
• The Diary of Anaïs Nin 7 volumes
• The Early Diary of Anaïs Nin 4 volumes
• The Novel of the Future
• In Favor of the Sensitive Man
• Henry and June
• Incest
• Fire
• Nearer the Moon

Manhattan here she comes!

Bethany has decided. She's accepting the offer from Stony Brook University on Long Island. (And she will be only 15 minutes away from Anne-Marie... woo hoo!)

http://www.sunysb.edu/

The university has offered her a full ride in their doctorate program, a yearly stipend and a student teaching position. She's set. In six years my daughter will be a Ph.D.

There are no words... they escape me. She'll always be free.
Now to get my son working on his degree... ;-)