Girlfriend [24F] had a mean, physically abusive PoS of a father and is insecure about scars he left her. How do I [25M] reassure her?

Dude apparently was super duper religious fanatic and instilled a lot of shame in her for things like her period, her sexuality. He would inspect her underwear to make sure she wasn't dressing like a "low life". Just, crazy, crazy shit.

She said he would yank her arms really hard if she so much as didn't call him "Sir" when he thought it was appropriate.

Mom was apparently a passive and abused as well.

She has two cigarrette burn scars on her back and several whipping scars (with a TV antenna most of the time), long thin scars that cover her back in different directions. Has a few other of the same scars on the back of her thighs.

We have been dating for 3 months and have had sex for 1 month. When we are in bed, she doesn't want me to kiss her back and when we go out she doesn't wear skirts or shirts where the back is partially revealed because the scars are pretty noticeable. She hasn't seen her parents in I think 5 years.

In general, she is very balanced but she reacted very strongly whenever I unwittingly tried to tell her she would look well with this or that, or tried to focus on her back during intimacy, so that can't be good right?

It really breaks my heart. I wish she could love herself, but also I can't imagine the trauma of living with a monster like that, you know? What can I do to support her, and reassure her that she is beautiful and I don't care about any scars?

tl;dr: GF's father was extremely abusive of her and she still deals with the emotional trauma today. How can I support her?

Submitted August 28, 2018 at 07:36AM by MaterialTechnician https://ift.tt/2BR3DEw