there are many names for what she does

I always find it a little horrifying that Irene’s a dominatrix.

Granted, I have never engaged in BDSM myself, but I’m pretty clear on the point that a dom/me should care about his/her partner.  Like, there’s a lot of psychology and perceptiveness involved in being able to read someone and know exactly how and when to push vs. back off, which Irene’s got in spades.  But two things you really really really want in a person who’s going to be tying somebody else up and hurting them are 1: a sense of when to stop and 2: for them to care enough to want to.

In a larger sense, I’m pretty sure the whole point of the BDSM exercise is meant to be some sort of emotional intimacy.  The sub is there to feel like they’re the center of somebody else’s world for a few hours, right?  To have their boundaries pushed by somebody with the skill and interest to do it the right way.  It’s…a kind of pampering, actually, from what I can tell.  There’s empathy involved.  Maybe the domme enjoys giving rein to some of her more evil-minded impulses, but she also has compassion.  Especially a professional domme.  She has to be able to engage with and care about people she barely even knows.

Irene doesn’t care.  She’s a user.  She wants power, not just in a BDSM scene but over people in the real world.  She gets off on trying to control and manipulate Sherlock, and on playing Mycroft, and on the idea of forcing the British government to submit to her.  That’s not BDSM, that’s power-mongering.  That’s trying to prove she’s better than everybody else.  Which may be a useful trait for a CEO or a questionably amoral consulting detective, but it seems like an absolutely abysmal trait to have in a dominatrix.

What I’m saying is that she should’ve been a corporate fixer.  Much more appropriate career choice for her; also better parallels with Sherlock’s job and with at least equally damaging access to high-level international secrets.  And it’s not like she has to be a dominatrix in order to try to seduce a man.  Damn, how awesome would that have been?