In theory cyberfeminism has always claimed to be inclusive but in practice it has functioned as an exclusionary movement, to the surprise of some of its adherents.¹ Although cyberfeminism has rejected definitions, until recently the term was confined to the work of predominantly white artists and theorists in Australia, Europe and the United States. I will attempt to delineate at least some of the bases for cyberfeminism's exclusiveness with the proviso that more diverse cyberfeminisms are currently developing. What follows is part of a history in the process of contestation.

In the early nineties, the novels of William Gibson, and the colonialist rhetoric of the Internet as a new frontier to be won by cyber cowboys, established the net as a predominantly male territory. Drawing on Gibson's idea of the "matrix" and supplementing it with others borrowed from Donna Haraway, Luce Irigaray, Sadie Plant, and Rosanne Stone, the Australian artists' collective VNS Matrix set out to infiltrate and reclaim cyberspace for women. Far from renouncing the body, VNS and other early cyberfeminists determined to corrupt the Matrix by "infecting it" with bodily traces: guts and slime. VNS celebrated the possibilities of both cyborgian identities and female pleasure. In addition to images of powerful female hybrids (their versions of Haraway's cyborg), the work of VNS Matrix included representations of sensuous and orgiastic experiences. Although VNS did not claim any ties with feminism, and later repudiated the movement, their investment of derogatory terms with new meaning was reminiscent of earlier feminist tactics: echoing seventies cunt at the end of their manifesto proudly proclaimed "we are the future cunt." VNS's efforts to translate the manifesto to several languages demonstrated their willingness to communicate with women of various backgrounds.

In 1996, VNS Matrix disbanded and cyberfeminism reconstituted in Europe and North America. In comparison to the feistiness of VNS, the new formation seemed blandly devoid of goals. It avoided ties to feminism in favor of a better public image and with few exceptions it refused to engage with the problematics of power that fueled previous feminist activism. Many late nineties cyberfeminists believed that feminism had such a bad reputation that it was better to avoid it all together. Old feminists were charged with essentialism, luddism, academicism and intimidating young women.² Euro-American cyberfeminism demonstrated a significantly different attitude from VNS to dominant rhetorics proclaiming the ethereal, transformative and liberating qualities of digital media. Where the early VNS deemed the rhetoric of disembodiment masculinist and antiseptic, the new cyberfeminists accepted it uncritically. From 1997 to present many cyberfeminist writings and works of art extol the multiplicity of identity choices facilitated by the computer.³ As the emphasis is primarily on the selection of virtual identities this implies the disappearance of the fleshed body marked by traditional categories of class, sex, and race.⁴

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