Not all the things they do, though, Rod. If a curled eyelash and a coloured nail is the difference between you getting a boner or not, then hey, whatever floats your boat.
As for the "we look good for the girls, not the guys" thing, I find this a little crazy. Basically what you're saying is "Yes, I'm a slave to fashion, if the fashion gods say something is 'in' then I have to have it or else girls will look at me funny." Really, are these the girls that you want to impress? You say you're competing - competing for what? The least bitchy comments behind your back by, well, bitches? Because really, bitches will bitch. It's what they do. That's why they're bitches, and that's why nobody should give half a crap what they think. If you do, you're only effectively letting them run your life.
If you do it to look respectable, good. I have no problem with obvious things - wearing nice clothes, washing your hair, a little makeup once in a while, whatever. But to colour your nails, curl your eyelashes, buy new clothes because "it's the fashion" or anything like that... that's where I get a little lost on where you're trying to get to. Of course, I generally just ignore the whole thing because, well, hey - maybe other people have different tastes to me. But for my thoughts on the pre-mentioned: Colouring your nails is ugly, curling your eyelashes is weird (but if it makes your eyes look good, I guess I can understand on some level, but still, there must be
other ways, surely?) and the worst of the worst: Fashion. Fashion is an excuse for someone to sell you something that in all reality doesn't look that great. If it actually looked good, people would buy it without the need to mention 'fashion' and nobody would question why they were bought. But a lot of girls wear stupid things and look stupid for it, and then they bring up "but it's the fashion" and I just... urgh.
If guys did the same thing, girls would probably start to understand why we think it's stupid. But we aren't stupid enough to do that, so I guess they never will!