Material girls are so last century

MADONNA boasted of being "a material girl in a material world". But, as she prepares to play her first Irish concert, a new survey claims the message behind her most famous incarnation is no longer relevant to modern women. At the height of Madonna's fame the size of a man's wallet was as at least as important to the average girl as the size of his heart. But a survey of 991 Irish women, taken by the UK-based Friends Reunited dating service, shows women are no longer impressed by men's financial prowess. Although 81 per cent of men and 79 per cent of women agreed with the statement 'Women today like to be wined and dined by their date/partner', just 13 percent of women said 'financial security' was a priority in looking for a mate. The majority listed intelligence as the primary attribute they sought in a partner while less than one percent said 'designer clothes' were a turn on. When asked what gift they would prefer to receive after a successful date an overwhelming 56 per cent of women said 'flowers' while just eight per cent yearned for 'expensive jewellery'. Friends Reunited dating spokeswoman Rhoda Moore said: "We were inspired to carry out this survey by Madonna's Reinvention tour and we found that women have indeed reinvented themselves. "We are no longer living in a material world. Women are quite capable of earning their own money and so they are less impressed by material things. They still want to be wooed by a man and treated like a lady, but this no longer means the vulgar displays of wealth that we saw in the Eighties. "Now it is all about showing a woman that you care and are a genuine person. Where once women wanted diamonds, now they want flowers." LARA BRADLEY