Media Image Analysis

In one of  Dr. Pepper's advertisements made in 2011, they marketed that the new diet soft drink, Dr. Pepper Ten, is not for women. Studies showed that men are less likely to take a diet drink because they feel that diet drinks aren't "manly", so they tried to market towards men. You can see that the can has a very manly appearance, in the colors and fonts. If they were marketed towards women, they most likely would've went with a brighter colored can with more rounded fonts. Then, they have the slogan of "It's not for women." to really push more men to buy the product. They also use powerful words like "bold" to attract men as well.

The Mask You Live In

Every child is put through some type of stereotypical expectation- girls have to be sensitive and emotional, when boys have to be a tough, manly man. For example, society has taught boys to be the manliest version of themselves, putting so much pressure on them to make them shut down mentally. I remember as a child when my parents would take my brother and I to the store and told us to pick a toy, I was pushed towards the pink aisle with all the Barbies and stuffed animals, while my brother was pushed towards the blue aisle with toy cars and Nerf guns. I always loved playing with my brother's Nerf guns at home, but I would never pick one out at the store. My brother, even though he doesn't like to admit it, he used to like to play with Barbies and other girly toys with me. Maybe I was afraid to get judged by the clerk at the store by getting a boy's toy, so I only ever played with them in the privacy of my own home.

A Child Called It

My favorite book is 'A Child Called It' by Dave Pelzer. I was a young teenager when I read it, and it is still my favorite book to this day. In the book, Pelzer describes his life of being abused by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother. The only thing that kept him going was the hopes of someone loving him, looking at him as their son, and not an "it".

This book made me realize that not everyone has a good life at home, even at a young age. I started to understand that mental abuse existed along with physical abuse, and it made me want to learn more on the topic. Cases like this interest me a lot, and got me really interested in Psychology. This book also made it easier to understand what happens to someone emotionally when something like this happens to them, which is something most people couldn't even begin to understand.