The Swedish Female Paradox

Bike is the most common form of transportation in Uppsala. In the fall and winter, it rains or snows almost nonstop. The temperatures are cold and the days are short: on the shortest day of the year, the sun rises just about 7 degrees above the horizon.
And no matter where you are or what you are doing, every female around you is dressed to the hilt, layered with makeup, and looking modelesque.
One of the most confusing sights I've ever seen is a Swedish girl in a denim pencil skirt riding a bike through town in a tank top with a thin sweater over top of it. It was raining and 50 F. To top it all off, she was wearing pumps.
Females here are not expected to look their best by men, but by their female peers. In a country where equality between the sexes is more advanced that we could imagine in the States, women no longer compete against men, but put a horrendous amount of pressure on each other.
We women can be viciously competitive, but it pains me to see women creating such high standards for themselves in such categories as fashion and body image in a land where they could be furthering the idea of self-acceptance.