Estelle Asmodelle (born 22 April 1964), formerly known as Estelle Maria Croot, is an Australian polymath and transgender activist.[1] She has also worked as a model, actress, belly dancer, musician, abstract artist, and physicist.[2][3] On 13 October 1987, she became the first transgender person in Australia to be legally recognized by the Births, Deaths and Marriages Department of New South Wales.[4][5] She was the first Australian trans person to receive a passport with a revised gender marker.[6][7] In 1986, she was referred to as "Australia’s First Sex-Change Pin-up Girl" and has a subject of media coverage since the 1980s.[8][9][10][11][12]
Estelle Asmodelle was the first-born child of Silvia and Barry Croot. Her father’s side of the family was Latvian and her mother’s side was English. Asmodelle has one sibling named Belinda. Asmodelle grew up in Berrima, New South Wales. She attended St Paul’s Primary School in Moss Vale and Chevalier College.[13] At the end of year 9, Asmodelle contracted meningitis while on holiday in Narooma. She was in a coma for three weeks and used a wheelchair for three months, later spending nine months in a convalescent hospital. She made a full recovery.
After briefly working in Sydney, Asmodelle moved to Wollongong to attend the University of Wollongong, where she pursued degrees in science and mathematics, hoping to become a research scientist. She also participated in music ensembles, including N-lettes and Miscellaneous Music, composing and performing experimental avant-garde music.[14][15] At university, she experienced transphobic discrimination from members of the academic staff.[16] As a result, Asmondelle left the university to focus on art and music.[17]
Activism
While touring in Singapore, Asmodelle was detained and placed under house arrest due to her passport designating her as male.[18][19] This and other travel-related challenges led her to advocate for legal reforms in Australia.[20] At the time, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not issue female passports to trans women.[21]
Asmodelle persistently petitioned the Attorney-General's office.[22] In 1987, she was invited by the AttorneyGeneral of New South Wales to be the first trans person to have her birth certificate amended, making her the first legally recognized trans woman in Australia.[23] Months later, her passport sex designation was also amended.[24] The following year, she lobbied for changes to anti-discrimination laws and for state hospital ethics boards to permit research into pregnancy for trans women.[25][26][27][28][29][30]
Asmodelle continues to advocate for the trans community and has spoken out against anti-transgender hate groups.[31][32][33][34]
Creative work
After leaving Wollongong University, Asmodelle worked briefly as an assistant photographer while taking dance classes at the Sydney Dance Company and with a private instructor. Asmodelle performed in shows across Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan.[35] During this time, she also worked part-time as a model. She later ended her touring career and returned to Australia to perform as a solo belly dancer.[36]
Asmondelle worked as a model in Japan from 1988 to 1992.[37] During this time, she had a small role in the 1989 film 24 Hour Playboy (Ai to Heisei no Iro - Otoko).[38] After leaving Japan, she appeared in several Australian films, including the belly dancing documentary The Enchanted Dance.[39][40][41][42]
In 2000, she lived and modeled in Los Angeles while studying at the Lena Harris Studio.[43]
In 1986, she became known as "Australia's First Transsexual Pin-up"[44] by appearing nude in Australian Playgirl. It was the first time a trans woman had appeared nude in a mainstream magazine in Australia.[45]
Asmodelle has been creating abstract art since childhood and began working on large canvases while studying at Wollongong University. Her art has been displayed in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Sydney and regional NSW.[46][47][48][49] In 2010, she published her first art book, Transience.[50]
Asmodelle has written screenplays and two books.[63][64][65][66] Since 2005, Asmodelle has also been composing electronic music.[67][68][69] She has released seven albums and records under the name Asmodelle.[70][71][72] Asmodelle has won or been nominated for several music awards.[73][74][75]
Professional and academic work
While modeling in Japan, Estelle Asmodelle worked as a technical consultant for several Japanese technology companies. She has developed several technological patents.[76][77][78] Asmodelle's designs have been cited in the engineering field.[79][80]
After returning to Australia, Asmodelle continued her work as a technical consultant. In 1998, she founded the internet company Ellenet Pty. Ltd. and since then was described as an internet entrepreneur.[81][82] In 2016, Ellenet Pty. Ltd. was sold to Sandgate Solutions.
Estelle Asmodelle has published multiple papers in scientific journals.[84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91] She contributed six articles on physics and space to Cosmos magazine in 2010 and 2011.[92][93] Several authors have cited her works.[94][95][96]
She has been a member of various scientific organizations and runs an astronomy and cosmology blog.[97]
In early 2013, Asmodelle was invited to become a Fellow of the Institute of Science and Technology (IST). In May 2013, she was featured in the Express Advocate for an introductory cosmology course she conducted at Central Coast Community College.[98]
She earned a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Astronomy from the University of Central Lancashire in 2017.
In January 2018, Asmodelle started a PhD, on a full scholarship, at the Centre for Quantum Computation & Communication Technology, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland,[99] working in the field of quantum mechanics and relativity. Asmodelle suspended her PhD with the University of Queensland in 2020.
References
↑ Inventors Weekly (NSW, Australia) Monthly magazine Friday, April 1987
↑ Ronald Russell, Alex Medvedev, 2017,'Estelle Asmodelle Biography' Spinifex Press, ISBN9781975828011.
↑ Australian Playgirl Magazine for men, Number 50, Feb 1986
↑ Riseman, N., 2023,'Transgender Australia A History Since 1910' Melbourne University Publishing, ISBN9780522879339.
↑ Rowland, R., 2007,'Living Laboratories: Women and Reproductive Technologies' Spinifex Press, ISBN9780725106997.
↑ Majumder, A. and Tarafder, R., 2007,'A Scientific Aspect of Transgenders' Notion Press, ISBN9781645875659.
↑ Biber K., Luker T., Vaughan P.D., 2022,'Law's Documents 1st Edition' Taylor & Francis, ISBN9780367441517.
↑ Highlands Post (Australia) newspaper Friday, 10 January 1986
↑ Australian Illawarra Mercury Newspaper, 15 May 1982
↑ Priest G., 1988,'Experimental Music: Audio Explorations in Australia' University of New South Wales Press, ISBN978-1921410079
↑ Highlands Post (Australia) newspaper Friday, 21 October 1987
↑ Nature & Health magazine (Australia) November Issue 1997
↑ Dehm, Sara. "Passport struggles: Lawful documents and the politics of recognition and refusal." Law's Documents: Authority, Materiality, Aesthetics (2021)
↑ Australian Daily Mirror Newspaper 9 October 1987
↑ Downie S., 1988,'Babymaking - The Technology and Ethics' The Bodley Head, ISBN978-0370311371
↑ Rowland R., 1988,'Woman Herself - A Transdisciplinary Perspective on Women's Identity' Oxford University Press, ISBN9780195544756
↑ Smith, George P. "Parthenogenesis: New Conflicts and Opportunities for Fecundity and Reproductive Freedom." Available at SSRN 3774284 (2021)
↑ Rowland, Robyn. "Choice, control and issues of informed consent: The new reproductive and pre-birth technologies." Medicine, Science and the Law: Informed Consent, 102-120, (1986)
↑ Wood, Kirilee. Ageing Transgender People’s Experiences of Health and Health Provision. Diss. Curtin University, 2020
↑ Sawsan Ahmed Elhouri Ahmed, Nuha Abdallah Mohammed Babker & Mohamed Toum Fadel, "A Study on Classes of Magnetism," IJISET - International Journal of Innovative Science, Engineering & Technology, Vol. 6 Issue 4, 2348 – 7968, (2019).
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