"I don't need a man. It's nice once in a while, like a chocolate or an ice cream.
In this documentary, director Jessica York investigates the 'spinster' phenomenon. In incredibly funny, but also intensely sad conversations, women of various sorts explain why they are not married or do not have a relationship with a man.
The candid interviews are alternated with archive material, film fragments, and staged realizations of these women's wishes. The documentary starts off with stories by women of the older generation. They tell about the limited choice they had in their days. They are not married because it was problematic to combine marriage with a career, or because they bore the responsibility for their aged parents. The women have experienced their life as a 'spinster' as a luxury. They lead an independent life and have enough time for their own creativity. This positive attitude sufficiently compensates their status of lonely, childless ladies.
In any case, their younger contemporaries have had more options. But the director of this film has her doubts about the image of the Independent Woman as it is depicted in modern women's magazines, in relation to the daily reality of the women of today. How far are these two apart? Some women in the documentary express their regret about opportunities passed by. Their stories still mention the fear of staying alone and the parental pressure to do things properly.
Spinster is a penetrating film about the clichés around the 'spinster' phenomenon that sometimes appear to come very close to the truth.