BRASH with the CASH to FLASH: The 80's Yuppie

For a world I knew little about watching WALL STREET has given me a new insight or Ive seen this kind of thing before but was less obvious in a subconcious kind of way. The film itself is not usually my cup of tie, having said that I found it rather interesting and amusing.

This image above is the example of an 80's yuppie, it is evidence of a lifestyle that has been written about for example, Louis Auchincloss's Diary of a yuppie, what's more it has also been adapted on to screen for example, thirtysomething, the late 80's tv show based on yuppies. Coincidentally both of these examples are published or screened in 1987 the year the Stock Market collapsed. http://www.theeightiesclub.tripod.com/

The image is evidence along with the examples above that represents the yuppie culture, a "socioeconomic" culture that belongs to the 1980's. The role is that of a city bussiness man/woman who chase the skewed version of the American dream by becoming a 'player' or 'big shot'. Its a notion where success is measured by what you have and who you are in a self gratifying manner that gives you status with wealth. Furthermore it is achieved by any means neccessary such is the nature of their working environment. But it's not just of their work but of their living environment as a whole. Thinking back to WALL STREET, it's the callous, treacherous manner of the dog eat dog, big fish little fish world. Perhaps thats a little dramatic but its icon and the stereotype. But they have their image to help define them, the car and driver or their not so mobile phone that is the size of a combat field radio, or their Gordon Gekko house by the sea. The fat shoulder padded, tailored suits with a fully Mod Cons gadget briefcase, it's all a statement of their achievement. Even better it does the bragging about it too so they dont have to, although you get know it wont stop them. Yuppie is the terminology for the 80's baby boomers the equivelent of the Generation X of the 90's that was mentioned last lecture.

However I think the image compliments the link for the examples quite nicely and helps me describe my understanding of the nature of the iconic lifestyle and the materialist world of the yuppie culture. Hopefully this has looked at the meaning behind the image.