It's really weird that people don't write her that way! Is there really a lot of vanilla Irene fic?? That weirds me out.

I intentionally avoid fic that pairs her with men, because of my meta issues with her depiction on the show and also just because pairing self-described gay women with men is a general squick for me across the board. (I've written her with male clients, but it's pretty clear in both stories in which I did that that, that she processes her professional interactions very differently than her extracurricular ones.) So I'm totally in the dark about trends in the Irene/men fic world. I have read a fair number of stories that explore her relationships with women (including Holyfant's EXCELLENT Irene/Kate stuff; "Photophobia" is one of my all-time favorite fics in any fandom), and in those I've read she usually does domme her partners. It seems... very strange, to choose to write her in a sexual setting and not have that be part of one's characterization.