Yes.
If you think it 'may' be sexual assualt then I think it probably was!
Certainly if the abuser got sexual gratification from it - in my opinion it most definately was sexual assault!
This is what I'm wondering, too. How is a physical abuse survivor to know whether their abuser(s) was feeling sexually gratified during the abuse or not, to label it, legally, as sexual abuse? (i.e. when your dysfunctional abusers--who told you they grew up being spanked and whipped, themselves--claim that you're disobedient, even when you don't do anything wrong, and blame you for all of the stress in their lives, like job losses and financial worries, that's why they slapped you, hit you, spanked and whipped you or your brother.)
Sexual abuse and assault cover so much. Depending on the circumstances, legally, it might not be considered 'sexual' but emotionally and morally, yes, I think it can if that is how it feels to you.
I think, sometimes, my pants were pulled down; other times, not. There were so many incidents and different types of physical abuse, I can't remember every detail. Since the spanking and whipping certainly felt like sexual abuse to me (the same acts that are legally considered to be sexual between adults), I'd like to label it that (I feel like doing so might help me heal and believe that the abuse wasn't my fault), but my problem is I have trouble doing so, personally, if it's not, in fact, considered to be under the legal definition of sexual abuse.
Mentally, a part of me feels bad or wrong at the idea of labeling the spanking and whipping parts as sexual abuse if other mental health professionals don't label it as such.
I wish there was an edit button! I forgot to add that it's hard to know what my abuser(s) true motivations were in whipping and spanking me because they didn't seem to know, themselves! All I know is, they've always been moody and dysfunctional towards each other, even before I was born (physically hitting each other, causing a couple of my mother's teeth to fall out). I don't know why. It could be them acting out their lack of a sex life for all I know, and that that might be the real reason behind the abuse I went through. Being whipped and spanked for several years, even when I was a teenager, that began to feel like some type of sexual sadistic act on their part.
