Every time we discuss about a small talk with young women, it gets the shade of pickup line. It's like mental disorder debate that arises every single time when there's a gun violence. It's just not related and it's simply gonna keep the actual conversation from happening.
I've lived in the "so-called" most crime rated city in US and murder capital of Canada. However, it's so not the case except for some isolated spots in those cities. Likewise, almost everyone came up with the same response ("it's cliquey") when I said I'm moving to Brandon. However, I can easily say that it's so not the case after living here for half a year now.
Brandonites are genuinely welcoming and friendly. May be, they are not always the first to initiate a conversation, but when I do, they open-up instantly. I'm from the other side of the world, English isn't my native language, I don't know anyone in Brandon, but none of these stopped me from making friends or conversations or quick laughs with kids/guys/mature women/seniors here.
What I did find interesting is that young women are bit more serious here. When I express my observation in ebrandon to figure out whether it's just me feeling this way or this is the real scenario in this city, the discussion easily goes off-topic. Men bothering women isn't Brandon's problem, it's universal. A newcomer to a certain city observing a certain gender of a certain age-group acting differently than rest of the community is Brandon's issue.
A constructive approach would be to evaluate whether the majority feels that it's harder to make friends/conversations/quick laughs with young women here through forums like ebrandon, and such evaluations can only happen if the discussion sticks to the topic. If the feeling is real, then it's high time to change behavior/attitude/or something for good towards young women, so that they can drop the guard and open-up/socialize like the rest of the folks here.
After all, Brandon is not a cliquey city... You're welcome!