Venus Envy

Sigmund Freud believed women had “penis envy,” the desire to have male genitalia; he obviously never talked to Zoë, the main character of Erin Lindsey’s Web comic, Venus Envy. Zoë is your average teenage girl dealing with boys, high school, secret crushes—and her own male anatomy. Lindsey’s semi-autobiographical tales take readers through the day-to-day life of the transsexual protagonist as she attempts to define what it means to be a woman. As a Web comic, it shows the inherent flaws of its format—typos and irregular updates—but the stories are honest and at once hilarious and bitterly poignant. Take the time to read from the beginning to really understand who Zoë is and to see what Freud missed: It’s our differences that ultimately make us the same.