Last night, I watched the “Dear Dad: I’m Going to Be Called a Whore” video.

I was electrified by its message, and I related to everything the author was saying—right to the very end.

The only thing that video got wrong was that its not only boys who call women “whores.” Women call each other names, too, and that cannot be ignored. Society, in general, has a problem with name-calling. It’s more than that though—it’s a predisposition to label people, to judge.

It’s ludicrous and it must be stopped.

These hateful words are what starts genocide—they’re what caused the witch trials, and they’re what causes cyber bullying, abuse and suicide.

Think I’m being melodramatic? Watch the video below, and consider the big picture. It’s there before our very eyes, and it starts at the grass roots—our thoughts and our subsequent actions.

As a collective, we need to stop perpetuating this hate. We need to stop name-calling, of any kind, to reconstruct the intrinsic love we have for all beings, no matter how different.

In response to that video—and to honor all the women who have been called names before—I have written a poem on the word I’m called the most: Crazy.

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I’m not crazy, so don’t say it.

I make mistakes all day—everyday,
And I’ll make some more tomorrow.
I’m flawed,
But I am not crazy.

My mood fluctuates with the waxing moon.
My blood thickens, flows, stops. It repeats.
I am hormonal,
But I am not crazy.

Judge me because
I make very bad decisions.
I can be emotional, irrational and foolish.
But I am not crazy.

I’ve been betrayed, hurt, lost—
I’ve experienced trauma that would make your head spin.
I am scarred,
But I am not crazy.

I flirt with disaster,
I wear my heart on my sleeve,
I am impassioned,
But I am not crazy.

I am not, nor have I ever been—
Crazy.
So don’t you dare say it, don’t think it, and don’t breathe it.
Because I am not crazy, and I damn well know it.
Now do you?

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Relephant:

Words: The Most Powerful Drug.

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Author: Brittany Ann Bandemer

Editor: Yoli Ramazzina

Photo: YouTube screenshot.