I like all of these ideas, though I would think there would need to be some PF clarification that connects culture/race to something more official. Like, the variations in British military uniforms are tied to the various regiments and brigades. It seems while Intaki are connected to the Intaki solar system, Mannar are connected to the Mannar solar system, Jin-Mei to Mei-ha/Lirsautton, the ethnic Gallente are a bit more all over the place. If we assume by "member races" we mean "member systems", then it would be Luminaire. Then you might have a 'culturally universal' uniforms for those who do not subscribe to the four major members. Would the mysterious "minor members" (vague references to these guys) receive any representation in terms of military fashion?
[....]
I also also approve of factionalism within the Federation Navy. The Federation as a single entity (government, administration, police, navy) above all its lower parts is pretty freakin' huge, especially when its broken down by individuals and communities, not a handful of monolithic megas or houses. Their could even be Factions with a capital F. I'm experimenting with a concept of this "Peacedealer Faction" (anti-Vulture), which is headed by a Senator, and has several members/assets of the military aligned to it. But that's not really related.
Some deep questions raised there. Regiments vs generic units, clumping vs blending of backgrounds, shared vision vs individual vision, and melting pot/"culturicide" vs cultural continuity.
Even more of a diversion: how strong is the shared Federal government, and which functions remain with the member states? I've gone from assuming (1) a monolithic-but-terribly-culturally-sensitive government apparatus, to (2) a light layer of government over a collection of member states that retain their own internal workings, including at least one monarch, to (3) some sort of Senate seat allocation based on clumps of worlds. These might coexist, sort of.
Speaking of male skirts (and sorry for otaku'ing all over the place, can't help but watch a lot of non-gritty sci-fi anime and steal Gallente ideas), but there is the ZAFT uniform from Gundam Seed here. Women could ditch the trousers and expose a bit of leg, or something. Though one of the female characters seems to have a shorter variant with a non-reg skirt beneath. Not sure if it's 'non-reg skirt' as much as it is 'fan service'.
Nice jackets, but if you have to get into a decompression suit
now, how do you do it?
My personal preference is for more of a Babylon 5 aesthetic in the military uniforms and going to town on the fanservice in other aspects of Gallente life where it's clearly an option.
* Matariki Rain mentally dresses, undresses and redresses Seriphyn, trying to decide what might count as fanservice.
I also also also like this Great Mother thing (may steal it :3c ). And yeah, I do believe that the Gallente's concepts of masculinity and femininity might be heavily based on the physique, rather than anything else [...].
RE: Great Mother. Go for it. Have a think, though, about which Gallente circles would prize symbols of fertility, and what those would mean to them. I can think of a few angles on that, but I suspect there might be some heavy-duty compartmentalising of sex and reproduction among many contemporary Gallente.
For me, ethnic Gallente religious stuff has echoes of the chosen/created French Revolutionary
Cult of Reason and
Cult of the Supreme Being, except with hefty doses of self-actualisation, aesthetic appreciation, and attractively personalised god figures who'd make for good artworks.
Typically a Great Mother cult is considered an old/archaic cult. More often you'll get goddesses available for worship in a range of new packages labelled "daughter" goddesses. With a versatile-enough pantheon of deities to shift between it should be possible to match people to appropriate godly role-models for their personality and stage in life.
The wiki section about the
Gallente strand of gender dualism is a bit too Mars-and-Venus for my taste, and acknowledges that. It has possibilities, though. Couple it with body-modding and I'm sure there would be superstimulus body types out there (Lara Croft and the Incredible Hulk), with fraternities of muscle bears being all manly together. I
like to think you could couple it with classy to get a broad spectrum that included the subtle as well as the flagrant, and "What would Athena do?" as well as full-on sexualised gender roles.
The article on
Gallente religious practices, while, in my view, messy and frustrating, is fantastic for setting up realistic-seeming liveable inconsistencies. I dislike reading it, but I very much like what it says about the lay of the land in Gallente belief systems. Having strong strands of individualism and equality AND strong gender roles is interestingly clashy.
For a French-Intaki blend I loved what Cia did with her Fortune-of-the-River cult.