Spinster focused on a single lost love, destined to go unmarried unless the lover returns. Tina Fey's portrayal of her character Liz Lemon, on the hit NBC series "30 Rock", exemplifies another classic spinster stereotype. Lemon, a 40-something single woman whose relationships never seem to work out, has unrealistically high expectations for a male partner: her dream husband is the archetypal "Astronaut Mike Dexter", and for much of the series her character is holding out on settling on a man until she can score an astronaut. Unpopped popcorn kernels have been dubbed "old maids" in popular slang, since like unmarried women
The Spinster and Her Enemies contemporary feminism in "The New Victorians" (1995). According to Denfeld, when she asked the National Organization for Women for information on its position on pornography, she was sent material that included an excerpt from "The Spinster and Her Enemies". She considered this an endorsement of the work by NOW, which she found "shocking at first and then saddening." Michael Mason discussed "The Spinster and Her Enemies" in "The Making of Victorian Sexual Attitudes" (1995). He found Jeffreys's views similar to those of other historians of feminism sympathetic to the anti-sexual views of some feminists. However, he described her as more