Woman as male fantasy
If a feminist sought revenge on men, would she create a figure like Maitreya?
If the feminist be a game programmer, she would be somewhat limited in her options. One can hardly imagine a successful video game heroine whose special ability is to "undermine and subvert all significations, the logic and the closure of the phallocentric language". (cf. Literary Theory and Criticism Notes: Ecriture Feminine)
Phoebe, in 'First Person Shooter', has little option but to design a female character capable of taking on the male at his own game, though would a feminist, raging against the male oriented work-place, dress her 'only way to strike back as a woman' quite so provocatively? Maitreya makes Lara Croft look conservatively dressed.
And isn't that an interesting name for a feminist avatar?
The best that can said for him is that he is 'Buddha yet to come'. Maitreya will come after the teachings of Gautama Buddha are "no longer taught and are completely forgotten" and will be signalled by a shrinking of the oceans so that he may more conveniently step across. All gods, men and other beings will worship Maitreya. (cf. Buddha World)
Unless, like maitreya.org, you see God as G.O.D. - or Generator, Operator, Destroyer, which is apparently what God means - in other words, unless you're a wee bit puddled - Maitreya seems a relatively harmless deity; hardly one to run around shooting or beheading people. But definitely male!
All in all, not an obvious choice for feminist icon.
Let us, for a moment, accept that Phoebe's aggression has somehow transferred itself into her creation. Well, then, we have to accept that she has committed the same crime against nature as Victor Frankenstein - she has created unnaturally a being through science that should not exist in the world. However one chooses to read Mary Shelley's classic - one of the greatest novels ever written - it cannot be avoided that she saw Frankenstein as a usurper of woman's role as the bringer of life. By creating life in the computer, Phoebe has achieved no less a usurpation, she has foregone her role as woman and mother to create in the manner of the male. As with Frankenstein's creature, Maitreya can be nothing but an abomination, a destroyer of life, the antithesis of all the creator intended.
There is, though, the unfair advantage. How does a flesh and blood human being kill a computer programme from within? Maitreya really is playing the man's game. By doing so, however, she ceases to be the embodiment of feminine rage and becomes, despite her appearance, nothing but the male she would seek to overthrow. As Frankenstein became the destroyer of innocent life. The creature kills William, Frankenstein's younger brother, and takes from him a minature portrait of their mother. This he places in Justine's pocket, framing her for the boy's death. She is hanged for the crime. It is a profound damnation of the male. The creature first penetrates Justine's person, then she is held responsible for the crime. How like today's rape victim who is too often held responsible instead of the male who destroyed her life?
We never find out how Phoebe intended Maitreya to be. We don't know what game Phoebe was designing in her own computer - nor how Maitreya "jumped programs". We are left to wonder why a woman, in a man's world, would create a character based on a prostitute(?) who calls herself Jade Blue Afterglow. It certainly isn't what Hélène Cixous had in mind when she called for an écriture feminine. How does woman in the modern world express herself as woman is yet to be discovered. It would be a shame if it becomes nothing more than a way of being but a female equivalent of man. When all is said and done, Maitreya is nothing but a male fantasy.
If the feminist be a game programmer, she would be somewhat limited in her options. One can hardly imagine a successful video game heroine whose special ability is to "undermine and subvert all significations, the logic and the closure of the phallocentric language". (cf. Literary Theory and Criticism Notes: Ecriture Feminine)
Phoebe, in 'First Person Shooter', has little option but to design a female character capable of taking on the male at his own game, though would a feminist, raging against the male oriented work-place, dress her 'only way to strike back as a woman' quite so provocatively? Maitreya makes Lara Croft look conservatively dressed.
And isn't that an interesting name for a feminist avatar?
The best that can said for him is that he is 'Buddha yet to come'. Maitreya will come after the teachings of Gautama Buddha are "no longer taught and are completely forgotten" and will be signalled by a shrinking of the oceans so that he may more conveniently step across. All gods, men and other beings will worship Maitreya. (cf. Buddha World)
Unless, like maitreya.org, you see God as G.O.D. - or Generator, Operator, Destroyer, which is apparently what God means - in other words, unless you're a wee bit puddled - Maitreya seems a relatively harmless deity; hardly one to run around shooting or beheading people. But definitely male!
All in all, not an obvious choice for feminist icon.
Let us, for a moment, accept that Phoebe's aggression has somehow transferred itself into her creation. Well, then, we have to accept that she has committed the same crime against nature as Victor Frankenstein - she has created unnaturally a being through science that should not exist in the world. However one chooses to read Mary Shelley's classic - one of the greatest novels ever written - it cannot be avoided that she saw Frankenstein as a usurper of woman's role as the bringer of life. By creating life in the computer, Phoebe has achieved no less a usurpation, she has foregone her role as woman and mother to create in the manner of the male. As with Frankenstein's creature, Maitreya can be nothing but an abomination, a destroyer of life, the antithesis of all the creator intended.
There is, though, the unfair advantage. How does a flesh and blood human being kill a computer programme from within? Maitreya really is playing the man's game. By doing so, however, she ceases to be the embodiment of feminine rage and becomes, despite her appearance, nothing but the male she would seek to overthrow. As Frankenstein became the destroyer of innocent life. The creature kills William, Frankenstein's younger brother, and takes from him a minature portrait of their mother. This he places in Justine's pocket, framing her for the boy's death. She is hanged for the crime. It is a profound damnation of the male. The creature first penetrates Justine's person, then she is held responsible for the crime. How like today's rape victim who is too often held responsible instead of the male who destroyed her life?
We never find out how Phoebe intended Maitreya to be. We don't know what game Phoebe was designing in her own computer - nor how Maitreya "jumped programs". We are left to wonder why a woman, in a man's world, would create a character based on a prostitute(?) who calls herself Jade Blue Afterglow. It certainly isn't what Hélène Cixous had in mind when she called for an écriture feminine. How does woman in the modern world express herself as woman is yet to be discovered. It would be a shame if it becomes nothing more than a way of being but a female equivalent of man. When all is said and done, Maitreya is nothing but a male fantasy.
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