Women Like That: a poetic exploration into the complexities of intimate partner abuse

'Women Like That' is a poem written after overhearing a stranger say, in reference to domestic abuse, that they couldn't understand 'why women like that don't just get out'. It is based on my personal experiences and, as such, responds to contemporary calls for first-person accounts that go beyond the contemporarily dominant social narratives around intimate partner abuse. The poem is here presented with a contextualising statement that discusses how the poem may be seen to reflect findings and arguments drawn from contemporary scholarly work around intimate partner abuse. The contextualising statement particularly considers contemporary research into issues of coercive control, why some abusees stay or defer leaving, and the challenges of moving forward.