Requirements for Admittance to the Sisterhood of Women: A Revision

Real women, they say.
Real women.
There are rules and regulations,
standards,
expectations.
Real women are ____.
Real women have ____.
Real women eat ____.
Real women buy ____.

Well. This is embarrassing.
Truly.
But you see, the Sisterhood–
the one all women belong to–
we met, just last week
to discuss exactly this:
the dire question of who gets to be a Real Woman.

You never showed up,
too busy, no doubt, with your own conversations
on who should be kept out.
But, well…this is awkward.

See, we all took a vote.
The whole Sisterhood, yes.
Should there be an exam? A medical test?
No.

We decided to let anyone in
who says that a woman’s soul lives
in their skin.
Regardless of whether or not someone else
agrees with their assessment of themselves.

And this notion that gender requires peer-review…
well, we’ve decided it simply won’t do.
So the only one out of the Sisterhood–well–
it’s you.