What does the word “fringe” mean, I wonder? Not fringe on a piece of clothing, but a person on the fringe. It usually has a negative connotation doesn’t it? “Those ultra-orthodox Jews on the fringe of society,” is one of those phrases that aren’t necessarily written explicitly in the paper but that always seem to be the hidden message around any article about them. “Those hippies/hipsters/punks/goths who operate on the fringe of our culture,” is another one. One that had a different form at every stage in American history, and especially, it seems, in the last century. The fringe. The outer edges. The people who don’t fit in, and that for that reason alone people tend to look at suspiciously. When Columbine happened, we all blamed the goths, even though neither boy was goth. (Some of us) romanticize hippies today, but they weren’t exactly welcome when they first appeared. And hipsters… it seems like no one’s ever liked them. The fringe, it seems, is a dangerous place to live. Why would anyone live on the fringe, why would anyone take that upon themselves? Why risk the glances, the suspicions, the derisiveness?
