Page 178 - Cyberculture and New Media

Leman Giresunlu 169
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travelling towards her shrine in search of spiritual fulfillment. The cyborg
goddess as a recent phenomenon reaches out to the postmodern day fan
groups in their personal computers in gaming and or in movie format.
Therefore, she does not only allow for an interactive experience, but also
enables for divers gender experiences, and performative indulgences of all
sorts. As an example Angelina Jolie’s real life shape exists as a model for an
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avatar in Second Life, the multi-user online game. In this respect, current
media offers choice with online game formatting, while the films continue to
generate a one-size fits-all voyage of the movie screen spectacle. Thus, both
Lara Croft and Resident Evil movies with their video game/movie screen fan
entourage proliferate a new generation of cyborg goddess sympathizers
cognizant of a complex attitude within the context of science, technology and
politics as inclusive of the female medium for a negotiation of all former and
current conflict points. In this respect, a closer look at the video game
versions of the Lara Croft and Resident Evil series may clarify the contextual
implications of both media comparatively. However, this study will leave the
analysis of the video games to a future task.

4. The Cyborg Goddess: A Story of Origin
Ancient mythological times undeniably constitute of a source of
inspiration for movies and video games such as Lara Croft and Resident Evil.
Ancient mythology as regenerated in the literatures and cultures of the
western world constitute also of a source to the symbolic order of such
movies. However, certain feminists such as Kate Millett in their analysis of
canonical literature works in terms of context and imagery of women
employed, observed the traces of classical mythology bearing the fruits of a
pacifying and oppressive misogynist intellect. Kate Millett in this regard
argues for the following:

Primitive society practices its misogyny in terms of taboo
and mana, which evolve into explanatory myth. In
historical cultures, this is transformed into ethical, then
literary, and in the modern period, scientific rationalisations
for the sexual politic. Myth is, of course, a felicitous
advance in the level of propaganda, since it so often bases
its arguments on ethics or theories of origins. The two
leading myths of Western culture are the classical tale of
Pandora’s box and the Biblical story of the Fall. In both
cases earlier mana concepts of feminine evil have passed
through a final literary phase to become highly influential
ethical justifications of things as they are.