Why do so many religious women and atheist women put so much effort and money in to feminine 'beauty'?

Societal Norms.

We're born into a society that expects you to conform to their norms. it's apperant in almost all societies and varies by cultural and ethnic norms or expectations.

not to mention that there is a constant cycle of "convincing" women [ and men ] that they * Need * certain things in order to adhere to societies expectations of beauty.

In order to move away from this, we need to teach our children differently. We need to become comfortable in our own skins.

There is nothing wrong with accepting some customs of beauty while refusing others.

Body hair originally served an evolutionary purpose. And although it still does amongst many mammals, it's no longer necessary for us because of all the advances we have made. (i.e. clothes) Androgenic hair acts as a thermal conductor and aids heat transfer both into and out of the body.

But if you do not remove the hairs and decide to maintain it, then you need to adopt a much stricter hygienic routine, so as to prevent disease.

That's more a Psychology question. Go to any church and you'll see a whole spectrum of women's make-up routine. Some have plastic surgery and some are completely opposed to it.

I have a friend who normally refuses to wear makeup or a bra...IDK why-I guess she figures she's been married for so long if her husband doesn't care, neither does she.

Most of the US women identify as Xian but there is a huge range of how much they'll do to get a certain appearance.

But that's also true of women of any religious belief (or of none)

What's ironic though is that almost all of these artificial 'improvements' (perfume, make-up, heels) started out as something for men to do.

edit: I'm not really sure why the 'standard' for beauty is some hairless freaky kinny really young looking girl. Or why that's what is on 'Vogue' type magazines b/c they guys who have told me what they like is always more curves. They don't like 'fat' but they think models are too skinny. Of course, put a large set of boobs on them and I'm sure they won't care.

I also heard on a TV show some girl explaining to a guy she was wearing boots to hide the fact that she hadn't shaved and the guy said to her that wouldn't mean much to her date b/cc any guy would be willing to suffer a little to get to heaven.

I asked my (psuedo) b/f if that were true and he said 'yeah'.

About body hair-I guess that's a personal preference b/c I know I would be turned off if a guy had a hairy chest.And I'm not a fan of facial hair either.

Because it's desirable.

Guys do it too. We haven't had to work quite so hard over the past few decades, but these days your average guy is going to be at least using skin products.

It's vain..

body hair came from God but so did cancer genetic defects/ disabilities. should we stop looking for a cure for cancer because god gave it to us for a reason.

body hair came from evolution and served a purpose thorough our past. now that we wear clothes an manipulate the environment around us, body hair is no longer necessary and many people have started not liking it. plus as we have evolved we have been slowly loosing body hair, our recent ancestors had much more

There's no shame in embracing beauty.

Why do so many *women* you mean.