Why do we care so much about how we look?

Question

Especially when we're single, why does it matter so much about our appearence? If we're looking for a boyfriend/girlfriend, shouldn't we prefer them to like how we look without trying to make ourselves look better?

Answer 1

Because we are a people who base dating and love decisions on shallow principles, namely how someone looks is more important than who they are. it can drastically affect our happiness and success, no matter how silly it really is. I personally believe we would be better off with some a more sensible system for finding love and relationships.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, our society has a fixation on "perception", or in other words, if you look like you can "walk the walk and talk the talk" then people assume you actually can. At first it seems that it is a matter of attracting the initial attention of whoever you want to notice you, once you have that you can start showing them bits and pieces of the real you until you find out whether they actually like you or not as the real you. It's a convoluted way of doing things but it seems to work(for some maybe, certainly not me(that is my disclaimer btw, I'm probably the last person who should be answering questions in this category but so be it, there's my two cents)

Answer 3

I don't have an answer for your question, but I think it's something instinctive, especially for girsl.
Girls who are two and three years old love make-up, even if their mom doesn't wear it.

I've experienced this with at least two little girls within just the past few months. Once, a friend of my family's daughter (two) agreed to come and sit down besides me provided that I put some make-up for her (given the fact that she has never ever wanted to come anywhere near me before). Another time, a colleague brought her three year old daughter to work. Another colleague was selling make-up, and the little girl didn't settle down until one of us finally put some lipstick and eye shadow on her (and her mom never ever wears make-up, she has no sisters or anyone else around her to look up to).

So it's instinctive!

Answer 4

I don't think it's ever about the looks, because a persons inside shows the real beauty . and when you look for a mate just for there looks it will not last as long. We all get old and what do you have after the looks are gone

Answer 5

I fully agree with you. In the animal kingdom, it is males who try to impress females with their additional features ( tusks for animals, mane for lions, collar ring for some birds) for access to procreation. Mother Nature asks us, the females, to select mate by looking at beard, moustache, chest hair and testes, all indicators of general health. But we females are so gullible that we but cosmetics to invert the rule of Mother Nature.

Answer 6

Insecurities!

Answer 7

have a look at peacocks, its a natural thing. Maybe thats where I'm going wrong in terms of girlfriends, my unkempt hair :P

Answer 8

oh ;; I LOVE YOU ; good question and answer. in my culture its like that, you dont have to make your self look good coz u want your b/f to like you ,if he likes u it's the way u are not u look i believe it and u know what else. is to believe in god that if u and ur b/f meant to be together u will be .so that's another thing that's keeps me going..... if they dont like the way u look which is they dont love u ,, and what are we looking for ? LOOOOOOOVE. thank you ,u made my day

Answer 9

Competition.

We're WIRED to compete with other girls.

Subconsciously, we DRESS for other girls as much as we do for men. We want THEM to be jealous over how good we look, so we feel good about OURSELVES.

Answer 10

Rightly or wrongly, your personal appearance is all that really matters.