1. attract mate
2. boost confidence
3. self-satisfaction
4. blend in or stick out

take your pick...

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Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

sorry to say this.. >> but my dad is more worried about how i look then myself

only when i go to a convention i play dress up with myself because i dont wanna do injustice to the char i cosplay

but then again im a natural good looking girl.. not to pretty yet also not ugly

im good with that ^^

Hmmm... I've never thought about it much.

I guess I just want to look the best I can. That's not a very good answer, but it's all I can really think of to say.

And to be honest, unless you're the type who doesn't care at all about anything people say, (I've honestly never met a person like that.) you're going to want to look good for school. It's unfair and all, but being "pretty," instead of being "ugly" or "generic," gets you farther in life. Guys notice you, some people judge you less harshly, and knowing that you look good boosts your self-esteem.

In our society, if you saw an ugly woman that didn't bother dressing up or looking nice at all, you might judge her badly, saying that she's probably too lazy to not care about her appearance or she's probably poor or some other random nonsensical judgment. In fact, she might be a super-smart millionaire for all you know, but because of stereotypes for how super-smart millionaires should look and bad judgment, it's likely no one would suspect that. Think about it. If someone pointed an uber-badly-dressed or ugly women to you and told you she was a multi-millionaire that has won countless awards and etc, chances are most people would exclaim something like "Wow, she doesn't look like one!" or something along those lines.

Also, in high school, being good-looking is also a plus- if you look good and pretty, it's one less thing for people to insult you for. Sure, they could insult you on just about everything else, but one thing they won't be able to talk and gossip about would be your looks. People might get jealous of you for whatever reason (or for the reason that you look pretty), but if you (know you) are pretty, the comments won't get to you.

Basically, almost all girls care about their appearance- another way to say they want to look good and presentable. Caring about appearance doesn't exactly lead to wanting to feel pretty, but the first usually leads to the latter.

In my view, an example of a girl who really didn't care about her appearance at all would be the type to wake up in the morning, take the first shirt she found and the first pants she found and put them on, and go about her day. In fact, she wouldn't even ever need to look in a mirror or own one if she really didn't care about her appearance. She'd also have to not mind all the insults that would come her way from anything about her appearance.

There's also a difference between a person who doesn't care about their appearance and a person who doesn't care about appearances. The latter would never use the word pretty, and it wouldn't be in their vocabulary. The word "pretty" wouldn't even have a meaning to them, except maybe "a meaningless word that society uses." I've also never even heard of a person who truly didn't care about people's appearances.

Another thing to mention is that there's a slight difference between wanting to be naturally pretty and wanting to look pretty with make-up and clothes and all that. But I won't go into that.

If you feel pretty (naturally or by dressing up, etc.) it's about never a bad thing. The only bad things that might come from it are the stereotypes that say you can't be pretty and smart, etc, and how some people might dislike you without knowing you out of jealousy.

The need to feel pretty isn't always a good thing though. While it makes a lot of girls look nicer probably, it also makes girls feel bad and do stupid things- being anorexic, beating themselves up about how they aren't pretty or how they're not as pretty as someone else, etc.

Bottom line-
-Self-esteem. Most people feel better if they look pretty, and why not? Being pretty is better in many cases.
-To fit in or to stand out- and I guess this would also be included in self-esteem. Most people don't want to be loners. Standing out against the crowd (in the prettier-than-others sense) also boosts people's self esteem.

Wow... that turned out long. Sorry for the long post guys XD

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Do you still plan to have that kind of hairstyle in 5 years' time?
...What?
That hairstyle won't be suitable in 5 years' time
Put your hair down
You...what are you...
Suddenly saying that kinda thing
Put it down
It looks better that way
NatsuMikan

It's not when you're applying for a job, and the one handling the applications is a woman; apparently then pretty women have less chance of getting invited to an interview (women's jealousy is scary, isn't it).

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pressure

sometimes, girls don't care about their outer appearance but others making such a big deal out of it, planting the notion if you're not pretty and don't care about your appearance, then you're not a woman. Or less than a complete woman. Whatever they define a perfect or "complete" woman is.

source: personal experience

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Help! I'm looking for... manga with dangerous guys http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=39874&pa ge=1#post594033

There are different factors for men and women when determining whether or not they will be attracted to someone. There's enough information to turn it into a day long lecture, but instead, I'll sum it up in a couple sentences:

A. If a woman does not meet a certain physical standard of attractiveness for a man, he will never be attracted to her unless he is dead drunk or desperate.

B. While physical attraction plays a role in a woman's attraction towards a man, she will subconsciously weigh societal success and capability to protect her/support her more prominently.

To summarize: For men, physical attraction matters significantly more. For women, a dominant personality has the stronger weight.

[edit]Women are not the only ones concerned about their appearance. In general, being 'attractive'/well-groomed will get you further in life than walking around like a slob. Sure, it's easy to be lazy and dirty, but it won't get you good attention.

[/edit]

To make a good impression. The harsh truth is people would rather talk to a pretty person rather than someone really ugly.

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I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life, it's just been too intelligent to come here.

Feeling pretty makes me feel put together->makes me do better.

And people regard you more politely.
I mean if a random pretty person smiled at you on say, a bus, you think
"What a nice person."
But if an ugly person does the same,
the reaction is more on lines of
"What a creep."

^ I don't think that way. I think it depends on how that person smiles. I mean really... handsome or pretty people suddenly start to grin really wide at you on the bus will definitely give you creeps. Well... maybe that's coming from me who don't really care about outer appearance. And flirts make me uncomfortable so I rather have ordinary people smile at you (and for the right reason!!)

As long as that person doesn't have any sign of major deforms on their face (pardon me for not being able to find a better word), I won't prejudge them. Maybe this is wrong saying that if a person has severely deformed face then I prejudge them but really, I can't help but stare. I try not to but again, it's not saying that 100% of them are bad people. It's just make me uncomfortable seeing them smiling at me when so many people may treat them differently.

I don't exactly know how to express how I feel eh

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Help! I'm looking for... manga with dangerous guys http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=39874&pa ge=1#post594033

Generally the people on the highest peg of the social ladder are pretty (of course the people up top are the ones that set what is pretty), so everyone else wants to be pretty as well.

I feel like the answer is obvious, I just don't know what it is.

It's human nature to compare. So rather than saying girls feel the need to be pretty, they feel the need to be prettier. Prettier than the girl next to her, preetier than the girl next class, preetier than the girl in the other office. Preetier than the girl in the poster. Preetier than the girl in the ad.

Men compare their wife/girlfriend with a Victoria's Secret model, so women feel the need to become prettier to get their attention. All in all it starts with comparison and the desire to compete.

Don't generalize please. Not everyone is always judging or making comparisons.

________________

There is a lot of pressure for girls to dress a certain way and look pretty, though I do think they don't NEED to be pretty. It's not as if they'll die. I think it'd be more appropriate to say "Why do girls keep up the appearances?" or something like that...but that's just me.

There are many reasons, for there are many people out there, and many different contexts.

Pressure
Just because they want to wear cute things to feel nice and cute.
They're going on a date or other special occasions.
Clothes = confidence! I mean, you're not gonna feel confident if you're wearing something that you don't like or doesn't suit you or doesn't make you feel pretty.
Job interviews! You don't want to look homely at an interview. You want to look clean cut and professional. First impressions are EVERYTHING...

In my case, I want clothes that make me feel cool and reflect my somewhat boyish personality. Though I'm outside the norm...

simply because we like attention and compliments.