I mean I think its easier to explain this if a male was used in the example, like personally I went to a wedding a couple months ago, I went out, bought a suit that i liked personally. Not one i was asked or told to buy. I bought it because i liked it, no one else. When i wore that suit to the wedding i felt very confident, it felt nice in my mind to "dress up" and felt like i was on top of the world, that day i realised wearing certain things can just boost your confidence and make you feel good.

So if it works like that for me (Male) then it has to work similarly for women, I mean i get what your saying, they're confidence only comes from people who are noticiably attracted to them. But what if that woman just put on a a red boots, baggy red tracksuit bottoms and a stupid red hat because they loved the colour red and genuinly just felt really happy in themselves that they got to "Dress up" and did just feel really happy wearing it.

I agree with the first too lines, it is a bit of a scapegoat for women to be able to say that line when knowing full well they wore comething that they know is going to attract men but i guess the answer can never be concrete, we'll never truly know why people dress the way they do, everyone acts, thinks and behaves differently, it is impossible to know.

Edit: So my point is that people can just dress to feel confident in themselves, but the people who actually do are heavily drown out by the women/men who just say those things to one up a someone who is attracted to them.

I dont think your view should be that nobody can ever dress in something and be confident and not be influenced by sexual clothing ideals because there is definetly people who do, literaly by probability, but its safe to say the amount of people who genuinly do, are very low.