Sexual abuse is any non-consenting sexual act or behavior.
Examples include your partner forcing sexual activity when:
- you indicate “no” and your limits are not respected
- you are sleeping
- you are drunk or high and are unable to say “no”
- you are afraid to say “no”
or when your partner:
- insists that you dress in a more sexual way than you wish to dress
- makes demeaning remarks about how you dress
- makes demeaning remarks about your body and/or body parts
- minimizes your feelings about sex
- berates you about your sexual history; blames you if you were sexually abused in the past or as a child
- criticizes you sexually (calling you “frigid,” for example)
- insists on touching you sexually when you do not want to be touched, either when the two of you are alone or in the presence of others
- calls you a whore or a slut
- has affairs with other women (often flaunting them) after agreeing not to have sex with anyone but you
- physically attacking sexual parts of your body, (grabbing your breast, pinching your buttocks, any touch that is unwanted)
- forcing you to perform any specific sexual act that you do not wish to do (for example: oral sex, or acting out pornography)