Most writing on cyberculture is dominated by two visions: the heroic image of the male outlaw hacker and the utopian myth of a gender-free cyberworld. This text offers an alternative picture of cyberspace as a complex and contradictory place where there is oppression as well as liberation.

The writers challenge the conceptual and institutional rifts between high and low culture, which are embedded in the texts and artifacts of cyberculture.