Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 2, August 2001 | Page 102

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Popular Culture Review

consumption people are priced in terms of clear values: women are priced in terms
of their appearance and how closely they resemble its cultural ideal, and men are
priced in terms of their personal wealth. Consider how these bumper stickers
illustrate this point:
Fat chicks make my car scrape.
Life’s too short to dance with ugly women.
Coffee, chocolate, men: some things are just better richer.
Men: bigger, stronger, better.
In sum, personal and private enjoyment matter little to narcissists. Instead, it
is the public display of success that turns them on. Self-fulfillment and selfexpression through love and work, typical of expressive rather than utilitarian
individualism (Bellah et al., 1985) are much more private enterprises than sexual
prowess and wealth display are, and this is one of the reasons why it is the latter
activities that the narcissist prefers. In other words, a caring wife and a fuel-efficient
car are much less captivating than a pin-up date and a shining new convertible.
These floating signifiers tell us a great deal about some aspects of our culture.
Obviously the author is not implying that our culture is inherently narcissistic and
that is all there is. Indeed, some bumper stickers pertinent to the themes of sex,
love, others, money, and work cannot be said to be representative of narcissistic
values (approximately 4% of this sample). In addition, Endersby and Towle’s (1996)
findings as well as others’ (Bloch, 2000; Jorgenson, 1977; Kriznar, 1993), point to
some of the affiliative principles of political and religious stickers that could be
read to be representative of traditional community values. These messages point
to the importance of involvement, care, acceptance, and togetherness. The \