"This Is What She's Like" is a song by Dexys Midnight Runners, released on their third studio album Don't Stand Me Down in September 1985 by Mercury Records, and in November 1985 as a single.

Rather than answering Adams's repeated in-song question about what "she" is like, Rowland contrasts the "she" of the title with people who irritate him, for example those who put creases in their jeans, and members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

The lyrics to "This Is What She's Like" were written by Kevin Rowland about his relationship with fellow Dexys Midnight Runners member Helen O'Hara.

Recording sessions for the album started at Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland, in May 1984, with a group of musicians recruited through auditions working with Rowland, O'Hara, Dexys Midnight Runners member Billy Adams, and Nick Gatfield, who had played on the band's live tour in 1982.

During the conversation, Rowland lists various dislikes, including people who put creases in their jeans, and members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, contrasting them to the titular woman.

"[9] Nick Hasted in The Independent describes the song as "the ultimate shaggy dog story of inarticulate, unsatisfiable longing",[10] and Daryl Easlea (2011) refers to it as a "mini-opera".

[11] Discussing the compilation album Let's Make This Precious: The Best of Dexys Midnight Runners in 2003, Rowland said "My biggest regret is that 'This Is What She's Like' wasn't a 10-minute single.

[19] "This Is What She's Like" has been identified as the centrepiece of Don't Stand Me Down by several reviewers, including Gavin Martin of The Independent,[18] Simon Price of the same newspaper,[20] in The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion (2007),[21] and in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

[25] The track was described by Sean O'Hagan as "the single most bizarre escapade yet foisted on an unsuspecting public in the guise of a Dexys song.

"[9] Simon Mares, in a negative review, called the song a "rambling reprise" of the previous Dexys Midnight Runners album Too-Rye-Ay.

[27] Taking a contrary view, John Harrison of The Sydney Morning Herald called the opening of the song "fatuous dialogue" and a waste of time, and also denigrated Rowland's singing.

[6] The editors of The Mojo Collection (2007) also detect a Beach Boys influence and comment that the song "merges opaque dialogue" and a "coda of Stax-style horns".

[21] Martin wrote that the track "may be the angriest love song ever written",[18] while Roberts feels that it "triumphs as an exhilarating hymn to romance".

[29] The single was dismissed as "ludicrous" by Tom Hibbert in Smash Hits[30] and by Phillipa Hawker in The Age as a "sloppy" attempt to combine "Come on Eileen" and "Caroline No".

Dave Simpson's Guardian review described how a version of the song lasting nearly twenty minutes received a standing ovation.

Simon Price of The Independent described an encore performance at the Shepherd's Bush Empire as "utterly astonishing" and that when Rowlands asks during the song whether he can express himself, his "outburst of ecstatic laa-laa-laas says more than words ever could.