Figures of Fantasy explores the popularization of the idea of the Internet as a cyberspace and considers the implications this has for discussions of gender and identity. The book analyzes the standard figures used to conceptualize and explain technology and gender, and traces the ways in which these concepts have served to create the figure of the Internet as a cyberspace - a manner of thinking that has come to dominate Internet research internationally, making visible its historicity, limitations, and implications. Figures of Fantasy offers an innovative theoretical approach to Internet research, and provides a highly original, systematic critique of the canonical works in the field.