Questions
What do Cardassians think about love? Sex? Homosexuality?
I’m writing a fic and I don’t want to get things wrong if there’ve been things established
Not a lot has been established in canon about the Cardassian stance on sex and none on homosexuality. We know Dukat had some social repercussions (I think his wife left him? Can someone confirm?) because Ziyal’s existence was revealed but I am not sure exactly what the canon reasoning behind this was. Because she was half Bajoran? Because Dukat was married? Because he was publicly kind and loving to her instead of shunning her?
We can assume that Natima Lang and Quark had sex, and we know they were in love, however Lang is a dissident and radical and so may not have been inclined to follow strict Cardassian social norms.
I think Garak makes some points about love in some of the literature debates, but it’s kind of blurring together with all the fanfic book discussions he and Julian have had, so if anyone else can add something concrete it’d be appreciated. However, I think we must also take what Garak says in these debates with a grain of salt because 1. He is a lying liar, 2. He says outrageous things on purpose to wind Julian up, 3. Just because it’s in a book doesn’t mean that is really how love and sex work in real life on Cardassia.
We do know that Cardassians flirt and assess possible partners by engaging in argument. We learned this when that Cardassian scientist thought Miles was flirting with her.
Anyone else have anything to add?
We know that orphans have no status on Cardassia, which I feel is relevant to the subject.
We know that Garak expresses righteous indignation at Dukat’s attempts to impress Kira (”You - a married man!”).
We know that Dukat had initially been attempting to hide Ziyal’s existence, up to nearly murdering her - though as @conceptadecency says, whether this is because she is Bajoran or the bastard of a married man is unclear. I suspect it is a bit of both.
We know that it was not uncommon for male Cardassian officers to take Bajoran “mistresses,” and I am using the term loosely.
We know that both Dukat and Damar had extra-marital affairs, though this may be acceptable by Cardassian social standards for all we know.
Garak and Natima Lang are both unreliable sources of information regarding Cardassian norms, as stated above, so I would mostly recommend examining the other Cardassians we meet in the series.
Sorry, I am very tired. Hope this makes sense/is helpful. I will add more tomorrow.
