What men want (£££, umbrellas and moisturisers)

Am in a state of shock. Last night I had dinner with a male friend who was moaning about the various females in his life. Apparently he has a problem with his current main female (he's one of those types that has a string of women*) as she "doesn't benefit him financially". It turns out that this isn't a moan about having to fork out for expensive meals, scanty-yet-expensive underwear or splashing out on surprise weekends away - it's the fact that she "doesn't earn a fortune nor will she".

Am shocked. Is this what the male species is after? I've never been asked to show anyone my payslips before (nor have I asked to see anyone else's payslips). I thought the y chromosome was more, well, primitive than that and motivated by desires somewhat different to financial ones. Perhaps I have underestimated it. At the same time I am genuinely shocked that one of my friends is that mercenary - (when I told him this he was surprised).

Is this part of the men-becoming-women and women-becoming-men thing - just like men using umbrellas more than women and buying more (moisturisers ) which is another trend that I have noticed?

* Nice bloke that he is, he is the sort of person you want as a friend but you'd never want to sleep with or get involved with - he can't remember the names of the last six month's worth of women let alone anyone before this, and so this string of women is inexplicable - they can't *all* be doing it for a bet