In 2018 when I moved away for university my older sister made me live with her as she thought it would be good to split the rent. It was okay at first but then her husband started sexually assaulting me. I was only 18 and I could not comprehend at first but then I realized. My sister has an infant and at night when she is putting him to sleep she leaves the two of us to watch TV. I always sit far away from him but he pretends to go get a snack and then sits right near me. He then starts rubbing my thighs and pretends that it’s unintentional. When I move away he stops and after 10 minutes it starts again. This keeps repeating until I get up and leave to go to my room. The worst it came to was when he started rubbing my thighs and when further and further to the middle. He was almost touching my personal spot until I got up and he put his hand over me and said stop but I pushed him. That was the last time he did it. Other times he does inappropriate stuff where he would pretend to play and then subtly grab my ass. I told my sister, she said he was playing and then when I told her it was uncomfortable she started blaming me. Each time I walk past the man he feels like he has to pretend to grab or pinch my butt and sometimes he does. In my sisters eyes she has married the most perfect man and he can do no wrong and she tells me that I am just trying to ruin her marriage or that I am jealous. It’s horrible because although I moved out my sister forces me to come visit her and be grateful that she let me live with her, he still tries to pretend to play and reach for my butt to either pinch it or grab it. No matter how many times I tell him it makes me uncomfortable he does not care. This whole thing has made it so uncomfortable that I even when I am alone I only feel like wearing oversized clothes because if I do wear something even mildly figure hugging it feels like his hands are on me, grabbing me. No matter what I tell my sister it’s always “men will be men”.
How do you get past being sexually assaulted by a male family member?
