sissyish

If a girl can become something like a cowboy by putting on the outfit and playing the part, and if a cowboy can maintain male respect by hiding his weakness, then the outfit is the essence of the cowboy, and presumably, it always keeps closeted what would appear to be unmanly and sissyish, even in actual males.

Henley had hidden Ernst and Ernest beneath their initials; and Hemingway's father Clarence, who had an equally sissyish name, was called the more manly "Ed." So Hemingway gave himself--and all his friends, wives and children--facetious nicknames and everyone in his circle had to surrender his real name.

Anything less was sissyish, an offense to their manhood" (p.