Originally Posted by
Analise
What do you do? You handle it directly since you've surmised that he's doing it on purpose. Since you've described this to be someone who might be coming on to a woman (the sleazy date verbiage), you tell the person that he's touching you and that he needs to please stop it immediately. Done.
Not everyone is comfortable with such a direct approach, I think that's clear from some of the previous posts. Some women, and some men, too, were raised with different cultural norms and are not comfortable being confrontational, even when they might be said to have a right to such an attitude - as in the situation described by the OP.
Depending on the length of the of the flight, I might leave my seat and discretely ask the FA to change my seat if possible, explaining why as part of the request. For a short flight, I might say something like "I know these seats are small, and none of us have much space, but I'd really appreciate it if you could keep your hands in your space." If that failed, or the male pax became angry/more aggressive, I would ring the call bell and in a very clear voice explain the FA that the pax next to continued to touch me against my wishes and I'd like to report his behavior as sexual harassment and be moved to a new seat immediately.
What I would not do is grit my teeth and tolerate a stranger touching me repeatedly.