Fun facts #8: Vaughan Williams and Hemingway a Travesti

[Stavros]

Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer of some of the most popular works in the classical repertoire of the 20th century; and Ernest Hemingway a popular writer of books, mostly novels, and a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Hemingway also had a transgender son Gregory who later became Gloria, and with whom he had a tempestuous relationship (see link below). Yet both as children were dressed by their mothers as girls....did this impact their lives in later years?

Vaughan Williams when young...

https://rvwsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/VW-child.jpg

Hemingway

https://cdn8.openculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/02231233/Hemingway-Dress.png


Life of Vaughan Williams – a longer and more comprehensive biography (rvwsociety.com) (https://rvwsociety.com/comprehensive-biography/)

Ernest Hemingway & His Sister Dressed as Twin Girls Shown in Newly Digitized Scrapbooks From Hemingway’s Youth | Open Culture (https://www.openculture.com/2015/08/ernest-hemingway-his-sister-dressed-as-twin-girls.html)

Gloria Hemingway, The Transgender Child Of Ernest Hemingway (allthatsinteresting.com) (https://allthatsinteresting.com/gregory-hemingway)

[filghy2]

Interesting theory, Stavros, but actually it was common for very young boys to wear dresses in the old days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeching_(boys)

The reason was practical. Before the invention of zippers, elastic, etc undoing of pants was a cumbersome process with much risk of toilet-training accidents.

[Stavros]

Thanks for the link and the argument which is fair. I myself have been photographed, around 6 months I think, wearing the same lace Christening dress that my sisters wore. Now I wonder....or best not to go into that.