Essays on trans, intersex, cis and other persons and topics from a trans perspective.......All human life is here.
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Croot was raised in small towns in New South Wales, and at 16 was seriously ill with spinal meningitis, and spent a year in hospital.
Croot transitioned to Estelle Maria Croot while at Wollongong University studying science and maths. She also started creating abstract art on large canvases, and was in a music group that played experimental and avant-garde music. Because of discrimination Estelle left university, and studied dance at Sydney Dance Company and also belly dancing with an Egyptian Dance instructor.
As Estelle Asmodelle she worked as a belly dancer in variety shows in Australia and in East Asia. She was detained in Singapore and elsewhere because her passport had an ‘M’ for gender. She, and others, lobbied the Australian and the New South Wales governments that she be allowed to amend her birth certificate. In 1987, she was the first Australian transsexual to get her birth certificate, and then her passport changed. She also lobbied for changes to the anti-discrimination laws and for research into ectopic pregnancies for transwomen. This resulted in a media storm which she was able to ride appearing in hundreds of magazine articles and frequently on Australian and Japanese television.
She took up modelling to promote her dancing, but it became her more important career. She was the first Australian transsexual to appear nude in a mainstream magazine, Australian Playgirl.
She lived in Japan 1988-1992 working as a model. She had a walk-on part in the Japanese film Ai to heisei no iro – Otoko, 1989, a transgender sexual fantasy that mainly played in art galleries. She also did some technology consulting.
In Australia she was in Secret Fantasies, 1992, and the belly-dance instructional film, The Enchanted Dance, 1994 that was controversial purely because Estelle was trans. She also made an appearance as 'girl on beach' in one episode of the television soap opera Home and Away.
In 1998 she published an autobiographical novel, An Aesthetic Dream - an autobiography. Also that year she founded the internet company Ellenet Pty. Ltd.
In 2000, Estelle lived and modelled in Los Angeles, and took acting classes at the Lena Harris Workshop.
She had continued large canvas abstract art, and was exhibited in Tokyo, Melbourne and Sydney, and Los Angeles. Her first art book was Transience, 2010.
Since 2005 Estelle has been composing electronic music, and has released 11 albums.
In 2008 she took a course in Astronomy at the University of Central Lancashire. She was interested in special and general relativity and its relationship to cosmology and time, and published papers in the Journal of the Institute of Science and Technology and the Asian Journal of Physics. In Cosmos Magazine she published "Neptune's day measured to the second", and "The Milky Way is a galactic cannibal", both June 2012. In 2013 she published Cosmology - the Ultimate Introduction. In June 2012 she became a Member of the Australian Society of Gravitation and General Relativity, and in May 2013 also became a Member of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (ISGRG).
In 2016 her internet company Ellenet Pty. Ltd was sold.
In 2018 Estelle started a PhD at the Centre for Quantum Computation & Communication Technology, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, working in the field of quantum mechanics and relativity.
Estelle died, age 62, in 2026.
Music albums:
2009 – Electronic Mischief
2010 – Transelectric
2010 – Dark Universe
2012 – Asmelectrix
2013 – Grooveatropolis Vol I
2013 – Electronic Mischief II
2014 – Near Earth Landscape
2015 – Dark Universe II
2015 – Monotonic Meditations
2015 – Improvera - Quite Moments
2016 – Grooveatropolis Vol II
Some of her newspaper and magazine articles:
Cleo (May 1987),
People (Nov 1985 & 1993),
Post (Dec 1988 Sep 1992),
Penthouse Forum (1986 & 1991),
New Idea (March 1986),
She (July 1996),
New Woman (June 1992 & 1998),
Naughty Sydney (Cover – November 1991),
Tomadachi (June 1991),
Wellbeing (May 1989 & 1993),
Nature & Health (November 1997).
Albin Pleva was a travelling travesti dancer, who occasionally supplemented her income by some sex work. She was arrested by the Czech authorities subservient to the Nazi occupation for being "irredeemable" and was interned at a concentration camp, a huge pig farm at Lety.
There is no further information about her, and so it is assumed that she died there.
Original version November 2014. Revised March 2022.
G. von Zobeltitz from Weißensee, Berlin, a scion of one of Germany's old noble families with ties to the Hohenzollern court, was making a living in Berlin as Gerda, a women's tailor, by 1910, and she was also sometimes a dancer.
In 1912 she was counselled by Magnus Hirschfeld and his colleague Ernst Burchard, and submitted a request for a Transvestitenschein, which would allow her to legally wear female clothing. Later that year she was arrested in Berlin for public cross-dressing, as reported in the Berliner Tageblatt: "the alleged culprit was soon released once it was determined that it was a case not of disorderly conduct but instead of transvestism".
Within a year Gerda had acquired the Transvestitenschein in Potsdam, and when called for military recruitment in 1913, she appeared as Gerda and was deemed ineligible.
However in 1916 she lost her Transvestitenschein after a grand uncle's denunciatory intervention.
Despite this she did survive the Third Reich, possibly because she married a woman and therefore could not be accused of 'homosexuality'. She had three wives throughout her life. …
At the age of 72 Gerda was run over by a car on the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. She is buried in the Friedhof Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche.
Berliner Tageblatt, 106, 27 February 1912.
Jens Dobler. Von anderen Ufern. Geschichte der Berliner Lesben und Schwulen in Kreuzberg und Friedrichshain. Berlin: Bruno Gmünder Verlag 2003: 75.
Katja Koblitz, : „In ihm hat die Natur das berühmte dritte Geschlecht geschaffen“. Gerda von Zobeltitz, ein Transvestit aus Weißensee. In: Sonntags-Club (Hrsg.): Verzaubert in Nord-Ost. Die Geschichte der Berliner Lesben und Schwulen in Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow und Weißensee. Berlin: Bruno Gmünder 2009: 58-80;
Robert Beachy. Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity. Knopf, 2014: 172.
“Gerda von Zobeltitz”. In: Persönlichkeiten in Berlin 1825 - 2006. Erinnerungen an Lesben, Schwule, Bisexuelle, trans- und intergeschlechtliche Menschen. Senatsverwaltung für Arbeit, Integration und Frauen, Berlin 2015: 82-3. PDF.
We know of Gerda 1912-16, and of her death in 1963. But what in-between? In particular, we know very little of how she survived two world wars and the Nazi regime?
Bathyllus was born in Alexandria in the mid of the last century BCE and maybe was originally called Gaius Theoros. He was a slave in the house of Maecenas, but later was given his freedom. He, along with Pylades of Cicicia, was credited as a pioneer of Roman pantomime (no dialogue), around 22 BCE in Augustan Rome. However the pantomimos danced a combination of old and new dances, of Greek and Asiatic traditions, and the term pantomimos had first appeared for the performer Ploutogenes before 75 BCE. Possibly what Bathyllus and Pylades did was to expand the musical accompaniment. A pantomimos was a solo artist who danced all the roles in a sequence with a different closed-mouth mask for each role, and was accompanied by a chorus who sang a libretto, a fabula saltica, supported by musicians.
Senelick p32
Unlike Pylades, Bathyllus was noted for his feminine grace. He mainly acted female parts and his solo act, Leda with the swan was acclaimed. He was regarded as the epitome of comedic performance, and as one of the leading modernizers of performance.
Maecenas, not longer Bathyllus’ owner, was said to have become/remained his lover.
Juvenal: “When the effeminate Bathyllus lasciviously dances Leda, just watch the women. Tuccia can’t control her bladder, Apula suddenly moans in drawn-out ecstasy, as if in a passionate embrace. Country-girl Thymele’s all rapt attention, she’s learning fast.” (chironomon Ledam molli saltante Bathyllo/ Tuccia vesicae non imperat, Apula gannet,/ [sicut in amplexu, subito et miserabile longum.]/ attendit Thymele: Thymele tunc rustica discit.)
One of the interlocutors in Plutarch’s Table Talk refers to Bathyllus’ performance as a danced imitation of ‘Echo or some Pan or Satyr revelling with Eros’.
Certainly the innovations of Pylades and Bathyllus quickly became popular, and the style was even incorporated into the Emperor cult, particularly at the Sebasteion in the city of Aphrodisias in Caria (off what is now the Turkish coast) where Aphrodite and the Imperial Family were celebrated.
However there were periods of rioting among the spectators and sometimes the dancers were banished from Rome and even Italy because of these passions.
Athenaeus, Sophists at Dinner 20e
Juvenal. Satires bk 6
Libenius On Behalf of the Dancers
Lucian On Dancing 1
Plutarch Table Talk, Moral Essays 711e-f.
Tacitus. Annals 1,54
Lillian B Lawler. The Dance in Ancient Greece. Adam & Charles Black, 1964:139-141,
F Michael Moore. Drag!: Male and Female Impesonators on Stage, Screen and Television: An Illustrated World History. McFarland & Compamy, 1994:129.
Laurence Senelick. The Changing Room: Sex, drag and theatre.Routledge, 2000:31-2.
Born in Serbia, Zorana worked as a chorus girl from 1955, and then as a belly-dancer in a night club. In 1967 she was a car accident, and was outed by the doctors at the hospital. Thus out, she applied to the Yugoslav 4 government to have a sex change operation.
Thomas Porter. “Car Crash 6 Uncovers a 12-Year Secret…Belly Dancer is a Man!” National Enquirer, Oct. 1, 1967.
Ms Bob. “Tabloids and Men’s Soft Core — Part 6”. TGForum, Sep 17, 2012. Online.
Roxanne Algeria (194? - )
Roxanne Algeria. “The man who became a woman: America’s Top 14 Topless Star tells All! My Sex Change … Why I Did It … My Love Life”. Confidential, 15 15,1, January 1967.
Ms Bob. “Tabloids and Men’s Soft Core — Part 6”. TGForum, Sep 17, 2012. Online.
Shalimar (194? - )
The Ranchio Escondido in Juarez, 1964
A renowned performer originally from Mexico. She took up residence in Minnesota and was able to get in the program at Minnesota University Gender Identity Clinic. Urologist Daniel C. Merrill later took three cases including Shalimar and semi-fictionalized their stories.
“Shalimar … Mexico, Mexico City”. 22 Transvestism Around the World, 23 Number 1, S-K Press, 1964: 52-61. Online.
Daniel C Merrill MD. Trapped: The True Stories of Shalimar, 27 Linda, and Jackie – transsexuals who believed they were females born in a 28 male’s body. Xlibris, 2012.
In 1893 the 11thWorld’s Fair was held in Chicago, and named the World’s Columbian Exposition. It attracted over 27 million visitors and introduced electricity, the zipper, the Ferris Wheel and much more. It included an ethnological section and for North Africa (then called the Orient) introduced North African dancing. Dancing for middle-class Europeans and North Americans at that time consisted of a rigid body and educated foot-work – such as the Waltz. As respectable women were then corseted, this could not have been otherwise. North African dancing consisted of mainly moving the body while not moving the feet, and was considered scandalous, although of course it was a precursor of twentieth-century dancing. A variant of such dancing was already known as danse de ventre, and soon acquired the names belly dance and hoochy-coochy.
Jim Elledge in his The Boys of Fairy Town writes:
“Among the many forms of entertainment available to the fair-goers, one of the most popular acts was the performance of a belly dancer called Fatima. A hit of the Midway Plaisance, which ‘featured over a score of exotic dances,’ Fatima’s was ‘the wildest of them all.’ She danced with such ‘wild abandon’ and her movements were so lewd that the police felt obliged to step in and stop her act almost daily. As Fatima’s act grew in popularity, a rumor began to circulate. She was really a he, the gossipers claimed, a rumor that has been since verified by historian Joe McKennon.” (p33)
So is this true?
Elledge mentions McKennon as above, but not in his notes or bibliography. He does give a citation of Joe Nickell. McKennon, writing in 1972, said of the Exposition:
“Maybe he saw Fatima, the wildest of them all, over at the Turkish Village. This female impersonator when last heard of in 1933 was the father of five and grandfather of seven.”
Nickell writing in 2005 simply quotes McKennon.
There is no evidence that any dancer used the name Little Egypt at the Exposition. However the Wikipedia page on ‘Little Egypt’ assumes that one or more did and considers three candidates for being the original Little Egypt – one of whom is Fatima Djemille. Wikipedia is the only source to give her a surname, but makes no claim at all that she might be trans in any way.
The best book on North African dancing, its popularity at the Exposition and the legend of Little Egypt is by Donna Carlton, a dancer herself, and a teacher of dance. She explains that there were both authentic and inauthentic oriental exhibits at the Exposition. The inauthentic included the Moorish Palace and the Persian Palace. The latter engaged a troupe of Parisian dancers who performed to popular songs of the day. There were however three genuine exhibitions of the danse de ventre: the Turkish Village, A Street in Cairo and the Algerian Village.
The Algerian Village featured dancers from Ouled Naïl, a Berber tribe from the Atlas mountains. Modern belly dancing uses their name for a style of dance. Carlton says:
“Female impersonators of the Ouled Naïl also entertained in some cities of Algeria (It is possible that at least two impersonators came to Chicago with the Algerian Village troupe).” (Carlton p29-33)
The Turkish Village featured Mohammed in the costume of a cengi (a cross-dressed dancer). Carlton reminds us that the cengi were so popular in Constantinople that quarrels about them broke out in the Janissaries, the elite guard, and so Sultan Mahmud banned them in 1837. Many then left and continued their trade in Egypt. It is said that this Mohammed remained in Chicago after the Exposition, married and raised children. (Carlton p 36)
A Street in Cairo featured the Ghawazi, although without using that term. As Wikipedia puts it:
“there was a small number of young male performers called Khawals. The Khawals were Egyptian male tradiitonal dancers who impersonated the women of the Ghawazi and their dance. They were known to impersonate every aspect of the women including their dance and use of castanets.”
We have already considered the cross-dressing belly dancer Hasan el Belbeissi in 1849 who was mentioned by Gustave Flaubert. Most histories of belly-dancing acknowledge the Ghawazi influence in both style of dance and costuming. (Carlton p36-45)
So far no Fatima. Were any of these exhibits raided by the police? Actually the three authentic exhibits were not. However the Persian Palace with its Parisian dancers imitating the oriental dance was singled out and ordered to be shut down – but it was not raided. The Persian Palace obtained a court injunction, and its shows continued.
On p62 Carlton refers again to the Turkish Village Mohammed, and calls her “Mohammed/Fatima” without any explanation. Presumably Fatima was Mohammed’s drag name. Carlton then provides photographs of Fatima in Coney Island, and on the cover of The National Police Gazette.
She says:
“Some 1896 photographs provide a rare instance of a sideshow dancer who is convincingly genuine: Fatima, a Coney Island performer. Her poses are common ones in the Oriental Dance of today. Her costume has interesting authentic touches and was probably assembled by someone familiar with Egyptian jewelry and traditional Eastern symbols.”
Fatima at Coney Island
This appears to be the same Fatima who was filmed in 1897.
Elledge tells of an elderly man who returned to Chicago in June 1920, tried to get the attention of younger men and claimed to be the Fatima from the exibition – but Elledge assumes that it is a different person.
The Wikipedia page on Little Egypt claims that Fatima Djemille died 14 March 1921. Joe McKennon claims that Fatima was last heard of in 1933.
So. Is Mohammed Fatima? Is the Fatima in Coney Island 1896 the same person? Was s/he a female impersonator, or any other kind of trans. Where does Elledge get the claims of police raids and arrests?
Joe McKennon. A Pictorial History of the American Carnival. Carnival Publishers of Sarasota, 1972: 1.34.
Donna Carlton. Looking for Little Egypt. IDD Books, 1995. Passim. 60, 62, 78 for Fatima.
Erik Larson. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic & Madness and the Fair That Changed America. Vintage, 2004: 312.
Joe Nickell. Secrets of the Sideshows. The University Press of Kentucky, 2005: 49.
Jim Elledge. The Boys of Fairy Town: Sodomites, Female Impersonators, Third-sexers, Pansies, Queers, and Sex Morons in Chicago’s First Century. Chicago Review Press, 2018: 33-4, 89-90
