Joe Brolly fallout: The slippery slope that leads to pornification of society

We like to think the days of reducing women to sexual objects are behind us, but recent stories are proof they are not

Joe Brolly conjured up a virtual Longford Rose to illustrate a point about Jim Gavin being too much of a shrinking violet for the presidential election, or the ‘Nasty Rose of Tralee’, as Brolly and podcast co-host Dion Fanning called it. File picture: Shane O'Neill

Last week, a Ruhama-organised conference on technology and sexual violence reported on the rising use by teenage boys of ‘AI girlfriends’. There are no age restrictions, no financial barriers, and users can upload a photo of someone they know — a classmate, neighbour, a family member — to create a virtual version of that person to act, essentially, as their sex slave.

Also last week, journalist and GAA coach Joe Brolly conjured up a virtual Longford Rose to illustrate a point about Jim Gavin being too much of a shrinking violet for the presidential election, or the ‘Nasty Rose of Tralee’, as Brolly and podcast co-host Dion Fanning called it.