Senior Communication and English student Elizabeth Weiss performed her original, one-woman show “Crazy in Love” in the Communication Department Studio last week as a culmination of her senior project.

“Crazy in Love” aims to analyze the word “crazy” as a gendered term, answering questions of why this term is often thrown around by men to describe women when it does not directly apply. The show takes on the form of a radio talk show, and as host of “Slay 104.1,” Weiss answers calls from women looking for dating advice, offering them rather over-the-top solutions to commonly experienced problems in the college dating scene, largely appealing to the male gaze. Through satire, Weiss conveys to her audience that the word “crazy” is overused and often harmful when used against women who are not actually “crazy” at all, but are just trying to express their deep emotions. 

“I was definitely playing up the crazy trope and making it so over the top with the advice I was giving to poke fun at the trope in general, but also the fact that men will call women crazy for the littlest things,” Weiss said. 

Weiss’s research stemmed from work she had done in her qualitative research class, in which she dove into the origins of the word “crazy” to discover if it truly is gendered and how people feel about it. 

“I looked into the history of the word ‘crazy,’ the etymology of both ‘crazy’ and ‘gaslighting,’ hoping to find whether this term really is gendered,” she said. 

Ultimately, Weiss concluded that yes, “crazy” is considered a gendered term. It was then up to her to write her script to convey the different ways in which men and women perceive and use the term. 

Weiss’s script included 10 voice memos by her friends, who serve as the “callers” on the show. She was happy to get her friends involved and felt it made for a productive medium in conveying her message. From wondering how to get a love interest to notice them to questioning why one’s sorority formal date didn’t ask her back to his frat formal, these callers bring about all too real examples that women commonly face in the dating world, many specific to Villanova culture. 

“In tonight’s performance, you will hear over-the-top, exaggerated versions of real stories I heard during these interviews,” Weiss wrote in her Director’s Notes. “Get ready to hear some terrible advice, some great music and think about what it really means to be a ‘crazy’ woman.”

In calling audience members to strive to be the “crazy girl” instead of the “cool girl,” Weiss further stresses that a “crazy girl” is “just a girl.” Why strive to be the “cool” girl when putting the word “crazy” in front of “girl” holds no weight or correlation to a textbook definition? If being crazy is expressing emotions, Weiss encourages women to be “crazy” girls, express those emotions and get the answers they deserve. 

“Because we don’t do ‘cool girl’ here,” she wrote.. 

Weiss hopes her audiences had fun and enjoyed her show. She hopes they walk away knowing that if one has ever been called ‘crazy,” it’s okay. 

“It really is such an overused term that can be used in so many ways,” Weiss said. “And [women] shouldn’t be too hard on themselves for that.” 

One of Weiss’s most fulfilling moments from this experience was hearing that her mother and her three aunts, all in their 50s, understood the show’s message, proving the subject matter is truly multi-generational.

“I thought my mom wouldn’t really understand it, but she agreed it wasn’t just relatable to my generation, but to hers, too,” said Weiss. “That was super exciting to hear.” 

Weiss’s favorite part of this experience was being able to perform her own writing. She has always loved the stage and found her opportunity to embrace that through the Performance Studies Department at Villanova. Weiss extends her thanks to Dr. Evan Schares for his support in advising her project and for largely shaping her Performance Studies experience to date. She would also like to thank anyone who attended either of her two performances, hoping they embrace that “crazy” and, of course, tune into “Slay 104.1.”

For more on Weiss check out her previous student spotlight here, and follow along on social media @skinniraini on TikTok.