Former ministers make strange bedfellows with Christian Grey

Over the weekend, the cinemas were packed with the women of Ireland enjoying the sexual exploitation of a young woman by a wealthy, domineering, dysfunctional man in the film, Fifty Shades of Grey.

Two former female government ministers, Mary O’Rourke and Nora Owen, have been in the media saying they enjoyed the film. By this, they implicitly made light of a man stalking, harassing, blindfolding, tying-up and beating a young woman purely for his own sexual pleasure.

One assumes that the two former ministers are unlikely to have experienced sexual practices of this nature themselves, but do they realise that many vulnerable women are routinely pressurised into engaging in demeaning sexual activities? These women do not have the option of stopping this behaviour when they are no longer ‘enjoying’ it. Do the former ministers not feel uncomfortable viewing this film?