Yipi Yi Yuppie

Last night at dinner with my cousin and her boyfriend (yes, I went on a double date with my cousin, voluntarily - I like my family that much), I brought up the term "yuppie." To avoid actually packing the things I own in preparation for the move to the new apartment next weekend, I've been paging through Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn catalogs, so the word's been on my mind. What does it really mean?

I think of the term as a derogatory one – a condemnation of selling out to "the man", becoming part of the mainstream, gentrifying neighborhoods, buying all of your clothes at the Gap, and leading a monochromatic life in general.

On the other hand, my cousin and her boyfriend had a much less negative relationship with what they understood as a benign acronym, Young Urban Professionals. A convenient term used to describe up and coming young people. Before last night, I hadn't even known the word was an acronym, which is telling in and of itself.

When I see discussions like this, where people are adamant about making sure everyone knows that they are NOT yuppies, I'm curious, and confused too. Curious because I fit the definition of a yuppie very squarely: I've worked at a publishing house owned by The Man, Rupert Murdoch, I live in an area that has been gentrified, I'm going to begin coursework for a professional degree this fall, I shop at the Gap, and so it goes. Should I feel the need to defend these things? Is it wrong that I wear khakis? Is it wrong to want to live in a safe area? Do these things make me a boring person, confined to blindly follow the other sheep? I don't think so.

And yet, to identify myself as a yuppie is to announce myself as a pariah among the majority of my friends who are so defiantly NOT yuppies. What are we all so afraid of? Aren't there some pretty good parts to being a yuppie? Yeah, yeah, we could get into the discussion of how labels are always limiting, yada yada yada. But we all use them, so please help me understand the underlying assumptions implied when you call someone a yuppie, or leap to make sure everyone knows you are NOT a yuppie. Is it that we're most afraid of being classed as boring? Sure rebels have accomplished great things, but is there something inherently heroic about going against the mainstream? Does anyone out there positively identify themselves as a yuppie?

P.S. For the record, I do not like Hummers. And in principle I do not like jet skis -but I'll be honest, I have had some serious fun riding on and water skiing behind other people's jet skis.