Costermonger Costermonger Costermonger, coster, or costard is a street seller of fruit and vegetables, in London and other British towns. The term is derived from the words "costard" (a now extinct medieval variety of large, ribbed apple) and "monger" (seller), and later came to be used to describe hawkers in general. Some historians have pointed out that a hierarchy existed within the costermonger class and that while costermongers sold from a handcart or animal-drawn cart, mere hawkers carried their wares in a basket. Costermongers met a need for rapid food distribution from the wholesale markets (e.g., in London; Smithfield for meat,
Strange Fruit: A Dutch Queer Collective 128). Strange Fruit embraced, what normative society considered, "non canonical bodies" (Tayeb: 128). Brown and Black bodies were marginalized and othered because they were see as "unable to fit" they did not fit the western cultural ideal so therefore they were not acceptable. Ethnic queers were seen as unable to attain a true gay identity because they did not fall under the conceptualized "white standard" of being queer (Tayeb: 129). Brown bodies were considered bodies that could not "properly be gay." Most importantly Strange Fruit recognized the ridicule ethnic queers faced within the parameters of their own culture. It is