Diary – 4 August 2012

What explains the extraordinary success of Fifty Shades of Grey? This question has been much skirted around but, as far as I know, no one has come up with what seems to me the obvious answer: a large proportion of women are to some degree closet masochists. Of course it’s an embarrassing thing to admit, but we are longing, in our sexual imaginations if not in real life, to be dominated and subjugated by a masterful male. This tendency also explains the enduring popularity of Mills & Boon romances, bodice-rippers and the novels of Georgette Heyer, many of which have been in print for almost a century. Fifty Shades is merely a more (much more) explicit continuation in the same genre. Indeed Mills & Boon are hurriedly bringing themselves up to date with a new series of 12 digital-only ‘racy reads’ called, believe it or not, 12 Shades of Surrender. What bearing, if any, this sexual orientation has on feminism or gender equality or day-to-day life, I have no idea.

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Matthew Parris

What if Trump is just bonkers?

There are many differences between tennis at the Olympics and tennis at the Wimbledon championships. At the Olympics, the men’s singles matches are best of three rather than best of five sets; players can wear whatever colour they like rather than ‘predominantly white’ as at Wimbledon; the service speeds are shown in kilometres, not miles, per hour; and, as far as I can tell from watching on TV, there aren’t many royals in the royal box. So it is unlikely that there will be a repeat of one of the more memorable moments at the gripping Murray/Federer Wimbledon final last month, which I was lucky enough to attend. Amid all the raucous shouts of support from the crowd — ‘Come on Andy!’, ‘We love you Andy!’, ‘Come on Roger!’ — a strong, clear voice suddenly exclaimed: ‘We love you Pippa!’

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It is easy to make fun of the notion of a professorial chair in networking — Jonathan Swift might well have dreamed it up.