‘Falling in love with someone from your own sex is like going against Cyprus itself …’ – discourses towards heterosexual and female-to-female subjectivities at the University of Cyprus

This article explores the views of Cypriot University students on heterosexuality and homosexuality. Drawing on interviews with eight students (four male and four female) and on discussions with two focus groups consisting of 10 female students, it will be argued that many young women in Cyprus invest ‘in a heterosexual career’ through marriage. Young women who do not follow this pattern, characterised by one participant as the ‘national sport of Cypriots’, seem to be ostracised by a cultural setting which privileges heterosexuality and national purity. Those who might feel a strong same-sex attraction are compelled to look beyond their homeland for happiness. The participants interviewed expressed the idea that in the cultural milieu of Cyprus there is hardly space for alterity and subject reformation; where different stories can challenge the phallogocentric national and heterosexual order of contemporary Cyprus.