Blair Bitch Project

My parents encouraged me to speak my mind even as a kid but for years, I somehow lacked the self-confidence. Took me a while, I'll admit before I dared even utter a single word of disparagement when it came to authority. Certainly not the Asian way to question our elders.

These days, I can't seem to shut up.

Seems like innate bashfulness is an inherited trait in my family since my poor niece seems to suffer from the same. Though Chatty Carmen might be a roaring tiger at home living without fear of reprisals, she seems a far different sort out of doors - fading before my eyes into a timid, bashful wallflower who clings to her mama's hand.

Very surprising. Yet one of the reasons why her mother's afraid of letting her enroll in an all-girls school.


We're not mean! We're really nice girls!
Not sure if my sister-in-law is speaking from bitter experience of course but supposedly an all-girls school is far too exacting and hostile an environment for a fragile blossom like Chatty Carmen - who'd be presumably crushed to a pulp by the prickly elitist roses. Though I know from hearsay that convents aren't exactly friendly to quirky outsiders - after all, witness the mean girls in Constance Billard - I've always thought that an all-girls produced better graduates.

Don't take my word for it. May be hopelessly biased though since most of the girls I know are the products of all-girl convents from Lissome Lorelei to Shameless Shalom. Even my fiercely independent mother - and my grandma come to think of it. Wouldn't even think twice about sending my hypothetical daughter to a single-sex institution of learning.


Wait! Did you hear that? There's a catfight going on next door!
Never had all that much problems in an all-boys as well - despite the fact that Shalom insists it's a fertile breeding ground for homosexuals. I contend that it's made us far more confident individuals willing to step out in the light.

But what about the innate all-girl backbiting / bitching that we hear so much about? Won't deny that it could be detrimental to a young girl's fragile adolescent psyche to be exposed to the malicious taunts of the mean girl crowd but ... hell, I'd have to prepare my daughter for all that if I ever had one ( though I still prefer the relatively less complex boy-child ). I'm sure my gal Blair - coincidentally - would be able to cope just fine.

Calvin : Whoa. Where is Blair going?
Paul : Like it? Ordered it specially from Paris - note the detailed stitching.
Calvin : Are you crazy? Do you know how much it costs! It's only her school uniform!
Paul : Please. It's her designer battle armour for her social campaign to win over the A-list convent girls. Don't forget her chi chi beribboned Adrien Vincente hairband. Very prep girl chic.
Calvin : OMG. What kind of values are you teaching her?
Paul : Dress like a handmaiden and expect to be treated like one?
Calvin : What is she reading? Is she prepping for her exams?
Paul : Nope. Just some sharp ripostes to be used during close encounters with the junior high bitches. I added some diabolical contingency plans as well.
Calvin : My God. Where is she going?
Paul : To school?

Come on, designer schoolwear, slick hairbands and the handbook of snarky one-liners compiled by yours truly? I guarantee Queen Bee status at least in six months.

Can you tell I'll be one of those crazy over-achiever parents? Poor Blair's gonna be under so much pressure. See what I mean by saying that a boy is far less complicated?