Are We Getting a Taste for Ernest?

Ernest Hemingway's early romances were with Prudy Bolton and a Michigan Trist. He didn't feel threatened by her possibly because she was of a lower class, possibly because she belonged to a conquered race. His mother dressed him as a girl until he was five or six years old. Do we know anything else really much about this tradition or this practice? We need to bring the word swain back. It's a lint, everybody. Very good.