(Week 3) The Representation of The Yuppie (Catch Up)

"Yuppie"

The Yuppie is an iconic image of 1980s culture in both its role in society and how it was used in the 1980s by big companies to sell goods after the image initially became popular among most Americans.

The term itself stands for 'Young Urban Professional' and was used to describe most commonly college graduates in high paid jobs who had to have the latest gadgets, cars and cloths. They were extravagant in spending and cared little about savings.

the yuppie was a very sort after lifestyle for many reasons and the aspiration to become a yuppie really took hold of people in the 1980s.

A website called Investopedia.com says the yuppie is represented as "young business people who were considered arrogant, undeservedly wealthy and obnoxious. Yuppies were often associated with wearing high fashion clothing, driving BMWs and gloating about their successes. The term has become less of a stereotype and now promotes the image of an affluent professional."

The website goes on to say that Yuppies tend to be highly educated in high paying jobs and either live in or near to big cities. Many fields of employment are linked with the yuppie lifestyle in the 1980s, most commonly "finance, tech, academia, and many areas in the arts, especially those associated with liberal thinking and style". They were represented as the upper-class or society, one that does not care about anyone or anything else, except for making money and spending it.

The use of the word became increasingly popular in the 1980s and even caused some spin off sayings such as "Yumpie" standing for "Young upwardly mobile professional". However this never gained any real attention and Yuppie remained the focus of the 80s. But, After the 1987 stock market crash the term lost its political standing and gained more of the social implications it has today. "Although its usage declined in the 1990s it has since come back into the United States lexicon. It has been used and cited in articles, songs, movies and other pop culture media". The saying has almost returned to how it was used in the 1980s to describe these young professionals in society.

Sources:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/y/yuppie.asp