DINKY

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DINKY is an acronym, short for dual (or double) income, no kids yet.

DINKY is occasionally used (in the UK, India, and China) to describe a high-earning couple who choose not to have children and are therefore able to afford a more expensive consumer lifestyle than those with families. The term was coined during the 1980s, at the height of "yuppie" culture. The post-2000 economic crises have made this social pattern more permanent.[1]

A version of the acronym, DINK, is still used in the United States and Japan, especially for a subset of yuppies. DINK is sometimes used in reference to gay and lesbian couples who are stereotypically perceived to be childless.[2] This may also be a more appropriate term for couples (gay or straight) who prefer not to have children and consider themselves childfree.

Some marketers have proposed yappie as a term to describe similar couples who do have children.[3]

The dysgenic, dystopian film Idiocracy opens with a pair of DINKYs learning they are unable to bear children, while a lower class couple has many children. The film suggests that if the trend of DINKYs continue, intelligent professionals will become extinct due to lack of childbearing.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Wouter van Gils/Gerbert Kraaykamp, The Emergence of Dual-Earner Couples. A Longitudinal Study of the Netherlands, in: International Sociology, Jg. 23, 2008, p. 345-366
  2. ^ Cf. Chasin, A., Selling Out: The Gay and Lesbian Movement Goes to Market, New York: Palgrave, 2000; Fejes, F., “Advertising and the Political Economy of Lesbian/Gay Identity”, in E. R. Meehan and E. Riordan (eds.), Sex & Money: Feminism and Political Economy in the Media, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
  3. ^ http://www.cim.co.uk/cim/ser/html/infQuiGlo.cfm?letter=Y

[edit] See also