"I Don't Dress Up For You! I Dress Up for MYSELF!"

Of the many lies men will be told from the ages of 12 to...umm....death, one of the more misleading ones (that can trip you up for years unless you learn the deceit behind it) is,

"I don't do X for you!  I do it for myself!"

"X" being

dressing up
make up
working out
lingerie
etc. etc.

Right off the bat many of these "items" should prove to be an obvious lie.

What woman REALLY wants to wear make up?

What woman REALLY wants to work out? (hell, what man does?)

If you are REALLY going to do something for yourself, then it is by (a non-pejorative sense) selfish.  You truly don't care what other people think.  So when it comes Saturday day and the girlfriend is out of town, do you think I'm going to

wake up early
run 6 miles
clean the house
put on nice clothes
and fix the car

for myself???

Hell no!  I'm sleeping in till 11AM, drinking during the day, playing video games, and going out with the guys.  And on top of it I'm not dressing up for nobody!  It is a TRULY selfish endeavor and ergo if you're really "doing it for yourself" you will engage in vices and not virtues such as working out, glaming yourself up, etc. etc.

However, the reason this lie is so tricky is because when a woman says this, it is a half-truth.

While she is NOT dressing up for you, she IS dressing up for somebody else.  And that somebody else certainly is NOT her (at least in a direct sense).

Again, we revisit the realm where economics and sexuality meet.  Women are (primarily) driven by attention.  Attention from who?  Attention from anybody.

Oh, go ahead and threaten me with your Adria Richard's hallow threats, I'm sorry dearies, I have nothing left to lose.  Besides, this is a fact and is truth.  And if you don't like that...well, then maybe you really don't like being treated as an equal and perhaps like every other guy I could continue lying to your face to spare your precious little feelings.  But I'm sorry, I'm not a sexist.  I believe in the equality of the sexes so you'll APPRECIATE me treating you as a GENUINE equal and never daring to lie to you as that would be degrading. 

Anyway, women crave attention.  And the primary way (before social media) they can get that is by simply dressing the part.  This is why in large part you can be at a bar/club, see a group of girls LITERALLY dressed as ladies of the evening, approach them and get your butt shot down.  They REALLY weren't dressing that way for you, just as they technically weren't dressing that way for themselves.  They were merely dressing that way to get your attention and the attention of others.  And should a supreme specimen of man (professional athlete, celebrity, obvious rich man) approach them, that is also why they dressed that way or went to the gym.

In other words, don't be a fool on either end of this half-lie, half truth.  She really isn't doing it for you.  And, yes, in a roundabout way she is doing it for herself.  But she is ultimately doing it to garner the attention of other people, both men and women.