WE all know it’s happening, but now it’s official: Cypriot guys are nuts for foreign, preferably Slav women. An obsession with the exotic, copycatism, or just a new fad?
Now a study by Dr Dino Domic, Lecturer in Marketing at the Cyprus College, attempts to shed light on the phenomenon that has arrived on our shores.
Drawing on data published by the department of statistics in 2004, Domic found that the Cypriot male has developed a “fervent preference” for East Slavic females (mostly from countries like Ukraine, Russia, Moldavia and Romania).
“In due course, Slav females have been among the primary factors in the dissolution of numerous local marriages,” Domic writes.
According to the figures, local civil marriages among permanent residents in which both male and female were Cypriot nationals accounted to a mere 9.4 per cent of the total weddings in 2004, whereas marriages in which a Cypriot female married a foreign male accounted for 15.3 per cent. Further, marriages in which both parties were foreigners that permanently resided on the island accounted for 24 per cent and marriages in which Cypriot males married foreign females totalled a startling 51.3 per cent.
Teasingly titled “The Ice Princess Conspiracy: Why do Cypriot males marry East Slavic females?” the three-year-long study polled 50 males from all walks of life.
Let’s get right to it. Summed up, there are four main reasons why Cypriots go for foreign partners. Domic has labelled these as: ‘Despondent with Cypriot female’s personality’; ‘Difficulties in sustaining relationships with Cypriot females’; ‘Enhanced communication with foreign spouse’; and ‘Sexual well-being’.
Speaking to the Mail, Domic was keen to stress he and his associates went into the study with a blank slate.
“We absolutely made no assumptions when embarking on this project. After all, this is a qualitative study. There was no hypothesis. And we did not in any way coach the respondents. We asked them ‘why did you marry a foreign woman’, and then let them do the talking.”
He said the idea arose out of “common curiosity.”
“This is a hot topic at cafés, restaurants… everywhere really,” explains Domic. “So we wanted to go deeper, to the cause of the phenomenon.”
Many of the interviewees complained that “Cypriot women are envious, consistently moan, and are demanding in nature. Participants stated that their former Cypriot partners would moan obsessively in areas such as the bedroom mostly about gifts; this would in turn make the male feel sexually impotent.”
“There was this one guy who told me that his ex-wife would nag him from morning till night. She wanted a Dolce & Gabbana handbag and a Gucci scarf. At one point he’d had enough,” says Domic.
One interviewee, called Ioannis, said: “At least my wife appreciates the bread she eats. Cypriot ladies are ungrateful and they do not appreciate what they are given.”
Domic extrapolates: “Perhaps the contemporary Cypriot man is intimidated by the modern Cypriot woman. It’s true that Cypriot males expect a more traditional role from their wives.”
Another problem, as Cypriot men see it, is the “unnatural attachment that local females have to their parents. Parents-in-law, according to the interviewees, are one of the main reasons that relationships fail. Many stated that their parents in law would interfere with the couple’s personal life and make small everyday problems seem enormous.
“Ultimately, the final concept relating to personality indicates to the actuality that local females are not down to earth. A plethora of participants stated that Cypriot women have their heads up in the clouds, are proud and pretentious. They compulsively fuss over little insignificant things such as their hair and nails and perpetually renovate their wardrobes.”
Christos, one of the respondents, had this to say: “Cypriot women are basically floating on air, they are just not down to earth.”
The second category of behaviour is labelled as “Difficulties in sustaining relationships with Cypriot females.”
Here, the respondents maintained that foreign females were far more appreciative to what they receive, and many stated that Cypriot females ask for much more than the average male can offer.
One man had this gripe: “Cypriot women were a disappointment for me. I believe that the way we bring our girls up is completely irrational. They live between two worlds: the traditional one, which is still alive in traditional families, and the world of American pop culture, which they contract through TV. This is the reason… I believe most relationships break down, because of the way Cypriot woman want to live.”
A great number of the participants within the study complained of their parents-in-law. They stated that their parents-in-law would interfere in their personal life. In contrast, eastern females left their parents at home, far away from Cyprus, so there was no danger of interference in the marriage.
“On the whole,” Domic writes, “the data strongly suggests that the contemporary Cypriot female is no longer capable of sustaining a long-term commitment due to the aforementioned behavioural concepts. An overwhelming categorisation of the modern-day female is that she has become exceedingly problematic with regards to her unstable personality; this, according to the participants, is the foremost reason why native females have difficulty in maintaining relationships with local males.”
The next category related to sexuality. The common thread here is that Cypriot females appear to be more reserved than Eastern females when it comes to sex.
Kypros, one of the interviewees said that “Cypriot women have tremendous taboos with regards to sex.”
According to the study, “Most of the participants… while discussing the issue… have repetitively stated that their foreign partners satisfy them to a greater extent in comparison to local females.
“Many have maintained that the reason behind this is that the culture and way of life is more liberated abroad than it is in Cyprus and this makes foreign females much less sexually inhibited and therefore more relaxed and impulsive in the bedroom. Furthermore the interviewees stated that their eastern partners make sex more creative and do not associate sex with guilt or religion.”
But is there something else to it? As expected, looks play a big part in males’ preferences.
“There appears to be an obsession with the Slavic/Teutonic models of beauty, especially as
projected by the media,” Domic told the Mail.
In his study, he noted: “A frequent theme emanating from the data throughout this category relates to the supremacy of foreign or Slavic physical beauty. Participants while discussing physical beauty discussed issues concerning better genetics, beautiful blonde hair, a lack of body and facial hair, outstanding bodies and intriguing stature.”
The fourth and final category of behaviour, which Domic found the most striking, was “Enhanced communication with foreign spouse.”
“Strange as it might seem the respondents state that they communicate far better with foreign females. This could naturally be considered as odd since it is a natural expectation that people who speak the same language can communicate better with one another. Peculiarly this is not so in this case, since most of the participants claim that they connect far better with foreign women than with Cypriot females and the cause of this is that foreign women are considered to be more intellectually stimulating and more interesting than local females.”
One of the interviewees, Lakis, elaborated on this point:
“Of course she satisfies me to a greater extent. She is a good partner in conversation. As I have met othe
r Cypriot women, the majority wouldn’t have been able to talk about social, political, economic or other issues. My wife has the intellectual capacity that makes me able to communicate with her.”
Further, the respondents claimed that their Eastern partners were far more understanding than Cypriot females. Eastern females seemed to put more effort into listening to their husbands and helping them deal with their troubles.
“I didn’t have this kind of understanding before, with my Cypriot partners when we would begin to talk about something she would start her moaning about whatever topic… these things are not right… I thank God that I have this person I am with now… I am very pleased…” remarked one man.
“You must understand that we talked to all kinds of people… from doctors to construction workers, aged 20 to 65. We wanted as broad a coverage as possible,” Domic told the Mail.
His paper will be presented at the upcoming annual conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
But he and his associates don’t aim to stop there. Already another study is under way, this time focusing on the reasons why Cypriot females marry foreigners. Once completed, the two studies will be put together in a book. So watch this space.
