I totally agree... it's not uncommon for a girl to tell another girl, "Your shoes are so sexy!" Making general compliments either about the person herself, or about the clothes she's wearing is totally normal.

Or when talking amongst themselves, they talk about other women like that... I have a friend who, at least once a week, tells me, "Adriana Lima's so hot, man. If I was a lesbian, she'd be the one." Or when (straight) girlfriends see each other across the room, they at least smile, but a lot of times even "flirt" with each other jokingly, with like a wink or making faces, etc.
Yet no one gets paranoid, like "WTF? Did she just wink at me? What is she, gay?"

However, this just being from my observation-- guys hardly ever compliment each other, especially on their appearances. And most of them wouldn't be caught dead making flirtatious jokes to each other. I mean besides JG and DMC, of course. :p