If you open an anthology of travel writing
particularly women s travel writing you are
bound to find an excerpt by Isabella Bird. However,
while Isabella Lucy Bird is much celebrated for
traveling the globe, challenging convention, and
becoming the first woman to gain admission into the
Royal Geographical Society, little attention has been
paid to the progression of her costume changes and
how her authority over her attire corresponds to her
growing authority as a writer and an emboldened
explorer. Bird actively uses her dress as a
performative space; her clothing descriptions become
her ultimate layer of costuming as she both
translates and transgresses Victorian standards of
femininity in order to package herself as a
professional explorer who is also a woman. Although
gender boundaries and expectations have changed,
gender continues to incite intense conversation, and
this work can contribute to discussions on gender
performance in writing and costume.
particularly women s travel writing you are
bound to find an excerpt by Isabella Bird. However,
while Isabella Lucy Bird is much celebrated for
traveling the globe, challenging convention, and
becoming the first woman to gain admission into the
Royal Geographical Society, little attention has been
paid to the progression of her costume changes and
how her authority over her attire corresponds to her
growing authority as a writer and an emboldened
explorer. Bird actively uses her dress as a
performative space; her clothing descriptions become
her ultimate layer of costuming as she both
translates and transgresses Victorian standards of
femininity in order to package herself as a
professional explorer who is also a woman. Although
gender boundaries and expectations have changed,
gender continues to incite intense conversation, and
this work can contribute to discussions on gender
performance in writing and costume.