As part of The Pixel Project’s Read For Pixels campaign, we interview authors and poets from genres as diverse as Science Fiction and Fantasy to Romance to Horror about why they support the movement to end violence against women and girls.
For Domestic Violence Awareness Month 2025, we present an interview with Read For Pixels poet Emma Lee who contributed her original poem Why Doesn’t She Just Leave? to our 1st charity poetry collection, UNDER HER EYE. Emma’s publications include The Significance of a Dress (Arachne, 2020) and Ghosts in the Desert (IDP, 2015). She co-edited Over Land, Over Sea (Five Leaves, 2015) and reviews for magazines and blogs at https://emmalee1.wordpress.com.
Inspired to support The Pixel Project’s anti-violence against women work? Make a donation to us today OR buy our 1st poetry collection, UNDER HER EYE, that is published in partnership with Black Spot Books. All donations and net proceeds from book sales go towards supporting our campaigns, programmes, and initiatives.
1. Why is ending violence against women important to you and why did you decide to support The Pixel Project by contributing your poem Why Doesn’t She Just Leave? to UNDER HER EYE which is The Pixel Project’s first charity poetry collection published in partnership with Black Spot Books?
Domestic violence can be more nuanced than most think: it’s not just physical violence, but also coercive control and/or financial abuse that sees someone isolated from friends and family, sabotage of career or ability to work, controlling what someone spends.
One of the most common questions is “why didn’t she leave?” as if the victim wasn’t taken in by someone pretending to be committed to a loving relationship and is able to find space to figure out what’s going on. It’s very easy from outside a relationship to see the abuse, but not when you feel trapped. When you’re caught in a cycle of abuse, your priorities are to survive; trying to leave when you have no financial resources and have been cut off from friends/family can seem impossible. It’s also the most dangerous time: it’s when the victim is most at risk from punitive violence, which could be fatal.
2.What do you think poets can do to help with the cultural change needed to stop violence against women and girls?
Poets can bear witness, destroy the myths around violence against women and girls and help victims find the words to explain what they are going through so they can recognise the abuse and find ways to get out. It’s difficult for victims to articulate what they are going through; there’s a tendency to downplay or excuse their abuser’s behaviour and shame can leave victims feeling trapped. By enabling the sharing of stories, other victims may see that what’s happening to them is not their fault and they have agency and options. By helping destroy the myths, such as “she was asking for it”, “what did she do to provoke him?”, “why didn’t she get out?”, and demonstrate that such attitudes are victim-blaming, it helps victims overcome shame and despair.
3. Any final thoughts about why everyone should support stopping violence against women?
Imagine what talent and achievements are lost when someone is intimidated and prevented from succeeding to their full potential because they are caught up in violence? It’s not just a moral position or a good thing to do, but enabling everyone to fully contribute to society, in the workplace, economically, is a boost that everyone benefits from. In the organisation you work for, how many working days are lost to violence? How many employees are “hiding” their talents because their partner can’t cope with them shining or don’t put themselves forward due to lost confidence?
Listen to Emma read Why Doesn’t She Just Leave? here: