Socialator

Cassiopeia is harassed for being a socialator (Saga of a Star World).

A socialator is a courtesan within the upper crust of society of The Twelve Colonies.

The socialator is a 4,000 yahrens old profession sanctified by the elders, wherein a person obliges the desires of others. It is not without its detractors, as those who practice this profession are scorned by members of the Otori Sect of the Gemonese.

Cassiopeia was a socialator prior to the Battle of Cimtar (TOS: "Saga of a Star World").

Notes

• A common mis-understanding with "socialator" was that it was likened to a prostitute or "space hooker," the latter term being used by actress Laurette Spang herself in Sciography.
• Glen A. Larson noted that the presence of socialators in Colonial society were "an attempt to try and be a little more sophisticated," and that socialators were "like a geisha, in that tradition. It wasn't purely sexual."
• According to Encyclopedia Galactica (a non-canonical piece of merchandise published in 1979):

  Socialators are "a caste whose function was to entertain and give pleasure to others" and were "skilled in the music and the dance, and could speak with intelligence on nearly any subject."

• The legality of prostitution under Colonial law was maintained in the Re-imagined Series, as noted in the episode "Black Market."