Wednesday, August 31, 2005

It's only a PYMPEL

I’ll admit it.  I have a problem with people who think they’re better than me, especially if it’s for stupid reasons, like not driving the right car or carrying the right handbag.  

I get a lot of that on Long Island.

I know I shouldn’t care.  I should hold my head high, confident that I have my priorities straight and my values in place.  But time after time I run into women who assert their superiority with an arrogant sneer in my direction, and it makes me mad.  Or sad.  Sometimes it even makes me cry.

Is that pathetic or what?

The women we typically refer to as JAPS are notorious for this kind of attitude.  You know the type—women so shallow they’re horrified to be seen talking to anyone who doesn’t ditch her entire wardrobe every season and start fresh.  They’re miserably unhappy people with bad marriages and unfulfilling lives who try to fill the void with shopping and complaining.  

I want to qualify all this by saying that I’m not entirely comfortable with the word JAP.  First off, while I know that most folks understand it’s an acronym for Jewish American Princess, I worry that there are some who might misconstrue it as racist slang for a Japanese person. But also, it’s given a free pass to anti-Semites, who feel it’s benign enough to throw around with immunity.  And that just gives me the willies.

So I feel like we need new a term for the privileged overclass on Long Island and elsewhere.  Some are Jewish, but certainly not all.  Perhaps we should call them PYMPELS, Privileged Yet Miserable People with Empty Lives.  I’ll try to remember that the next time one of them tries to assert her superiority over me for wearing the wrong shoes, and maybe I won’t feel so bad.

After all, I’m not the type who cries over a PYMPEL … am I?


8 comments:

Myfanwy Collins said...

PYMPEL! What a perfect acronym and a perfect way to describe the emotions associated with being looked down upon. PYMPELs do come in all shapes and sizes and can be found anywhere. I've even found them in the most unlikely of places.

I never have the right shoes (never!) or the right clothes. I've been in many situations where I've felt the glare of the PYMPELs, studying my clothes, my hair and judging me. Or, at least I believe they are judging me.

I don't know how to overcome my feelings of inferiority in such situations. Not sure it's possible but I do know that it has always been a motivator to me to just prove them wrong.

And anyone who judges someone as classy and brilliant as you are, Ellen, has got the world all wrong.

Beth said...

PYMPEL...I love that acronym! Unfortunately, I've run into many of them around here too.

Katie said...

Hi Ellen! So nice to read you!

I've met too many pympels to count and I LOVE negating their attitudes. It's my personal contribution to the planet.

katrina said...

Pympels! Ha!! That is BRILLIANT and hilarious!

Jordan E. Rosenfeld said...

I'm so glad you're blogging...I was waiting for this! And yes, your acronymn is so good, I'd watch out, someone might try to steal it and get rich off it :)


xo
J

Ellen said...

Myf, Beth, Katie, Katrina and Jordan ... Thanks so much for stopping by and posting! You gals are the best!

P. H. M. said...

I'm not a gal or anything, but not having spent much time around Jews I did think you were speaking of the Japanese, and the thought of you saying that was so ridiculous that I had to chuckle. Then I read on, which made it even funnier.

P. H. Madore

Ellen said...

That's interesting, P.H. I thought the Jewish American Princess term was so universal. Maybe it's dying out.