I've noticed, through personal experience as well as this and other docs, that the children in abusive homes (not just sexual!) often side with the abusive parent. Why is that? I'm curious to know if there's a scientific explanation for it. I'm the eldest of seven, my stepdad was an abusive drunk, he even beat my Ma when she was pregnant. It blew my mind when she divorced him and SO MANY family members sided with him, including two of my sisters. What would Freud say lol?
shareAbusers are masters of manipulation, they groom their victims to trust them and rely on them, and to keep their secrets. It's a highly complex relationship, and this can happen.
shareWell the dynamic of perpetrator and victim is not so simple. In this film the adult children shared something with their dad, which David labelled humour, we will never know else was shared. She was on the periphery of the family and her concerns and anger were too much for them when they refused to believe the allegations against their father. Also sex abuse victims seem to report a loyalty to their abusers, which goes beyond fear of punishment. When the abuser is a family member those ties of loyalty are complicated by love.
People who have been victims of some type of sexual abuse and others who grow up in a household where domestic violence is practised seem to attract partners as adults with whom they act out these early conditions. I'm sure there's a lot more to the situation than you've presented that led to two of your sisters supporting your stepdad over their mother. Freud would not be a good source on such matters. He turned his findings of endemic sexual abuse into a theory that isolated and focused upon the victim creating their own condition. He did a lot of damage and it persists today.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summershare