ABSTRACT
Caribbean qualitative research on intimate partner violence (IPV) has called attention to the gendered relations of power that sustain such violence. In this chapter, narratives of violence in 34 in-depth interviews with Vincentian survivors/victims and perpetrators of IPV are examined. Explanations of violence mobilised in these interviews are underpinned by a colonial/modern gender system/logic. Participants’ commitment to these scripts provides the context within which such violence is justified, rationalised, supported, and perpetuated. When applied, insights from decolonial feminist analysis reveal how IPV is overwhelmingly produced as an effect of challenges to a dichotomous and hierarchical gender order. Whether it is to explain the use of violence, to deflect blame, or to present violence as the preserve of men, these accounts must be read as part of larger systems of inequality that are historically, socially, and politically mobile.
