Later on as I let my mind wander while in the shower I thought of a similar situation. This scenario being about how women answer the question:
"Who are you lookin' good for?"
I'm certain you've seen a few of this posts, and all with a woman responding with, "For myself, that's who," or maybe a more colorful variation of the same thing.
I, myself, for some reason have been asked this question a handful of times and have given the same answer every time. Sometimes my answer prompts the follow-up question asking me to explain why, when surely the only reason I dress up for myself is to attract the unwarranted attention of someone else. By this time they usually start thinking that I'm a vain individual who is full of herself. While for some people they might want to dress up for attention, and by all means let them go for it; let them live their lives how they see fit, but that's not why others choose to do it.
My opinion is that we, for the majority of the time, dress up and go out because we somehow managed to meet a personal beauty standard of sorts and we want others to see that. We aren't trying to get attention, we're trying to show off our confidence which so many times is misconstrued into walking around with an air of pompousness. I know this to be true on a personal level seeing as how I have very little amounts of confidence to spare.
So in all, I suppose the initial question itself is more of a backhanded compliment. It's like you're saying, "Oh wow, you actually look pretty."
I don't know though, that's just my opinion. I know when someone asks me that it feels like I take a little hit somewhere. Remember to choose your words wisely though, you never know what makes someone do what they do.
