Again, I agree with what you're saying. I just feel like it's a shame that we can't honestly appreciate a woman's appearance, because of "game" or ego or whatever. Because let's face it, a woman's appearance is what draws us to them.
I agree it is a shame but you said it yourself... it is part of the game... the dance that is between a man and a woman. And you can appreciate her appearance without saying so. Your appreciation also manifests itself in the way you look at her, touch her, escalate with her, etc. I would dare to say the majority of attractive women have a negative association with being told by a guy that they are attractive. It’s because they hear it all the time and it isn’t unique and they see it like they see “nice guys”: guys using the same words they have heard 1000000x before to try to get into her pants. That’s boring for women. They’d MUCH prefer waiting and wondering about a guy who seems somewhat into them, but not completely sold, and also seems high value. A guy like that isn’t going to compliment them on their looks much, if ever. He could go get a hotter girl.
If, when, and how to compliment a woman is, in my opinion, a very delicate and nuanced subject and I think it’s a very good question to ask and discuss. I’ve done it incorrectly enough in the past to have learned a lot about it.
Some things I have learned through my own experiences (always the hard way, of course):
You can compliment a woman who is really into you any time you want.
There shouldn’t be a big gap between how often she compliments you and how often you compliment her.
Early on in the dating (before sex especially), women are mostly focused on judging your value.... your desireability to other women and how successful you are with other women. You have to be very careful during this time regarding how much validation you give her. Generally, the less the better at this time.
Compliments about nearly any aspect of her will be more appreciated and more striking than a compliment on her looks.
It is always better to compliment her on something she did herself, than something genetic. For example, if she is a natural red head, don’t compliment her on her beautiful
red hair as she did nothing for it and it’s not really a compliment. If she works out really hard and has incredible legs then complimenting her legs would be appropriate because they are the product of her deliberate effort.
So many women have been brainwashed by third wave feminism that if your compliment is about her body, especially early on, an indirect compliment is a often better accepted. Like, “those jeans look incredible on you” instead of “you have incredibly sexy long legs.” Plus you are complimenting her on something she did (her fashion sense and awareness in picking a pair of jeans that are flattering to her).