The "Yuppie".

The "Yuppie".

The idea of the "Yuppie" appeared in the early 1980's and it signified a new class of wealth, the young professionals. The stereotype of the "Yuppie" has a strong connotations of the young middle and upper classed men from privileged backgrounds. A stigma has been formed around this image and the "Yuppie" is often associated with the conceited, capitalist consumer, whose career involves money and lots of it. 

It's significance in relation to the 80's is important as it symbolises the economic boom and the nouveau riche culture that existed at the time. It illustrated a new age of consumerism and self absorption that is still crucial within society's infrastructure as the current debate about the 1% and the banking scandals of recent years shows. The 1980's marked a time of innovation and corporation and a boom in the importance of 'things' that is to say that new products were storming the market in all areas and people had the money to buy them. 

The "Yuppie" also become a fixture within film and literature as a emblem of the era. Author Bret Easton Ellis wrote books at the time and into the 1990's about the "Yuppie" culture and in doing so created a cult ideal behind the image of the young professional. Ellis created characters that simultaneously basked in the glory of their wealth and opulence whilst at the same time represented a typecast of morally devoid capitalist figures. 

The film 2000 American Psycho whilst being made outside of the 80's still significantly illustrates the role of the "Yuppie" in the 1980's. The film is particularly important too as it shows not only the lifestyle and context of the time but through its retrospect production, conveys the the way the "Yuppie" as defined in the 1980's in viewed after the fact. 

In Oliver Stone's 1987 film "Wall Street" the "Yuppie" is again explored and embodied in the memorable quote, 'Greed is Good'.