lord-of-the-time-wasters

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fandom - call the midwife

words: 2182

rating - teen

category - gen

characters - timothy turner, patrick turner, shelagh turner

summary: When Tim leaves two cryptic notes in strange places for both of his parents, they're in a frantic worry all day. The eventual revelation is far less of a shock than they expected.

The Timothy Turner coming out fic that nobody asked for, but I provided anyway!<33

#luvved this smmmm #call the midwife

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the mischaracterisation of shelagh turner

this post will be a bit of a ramble, and i promise im not directly attacking any one person or group! i've just seen a few things over the course of my involvement with the fandom that trouble me a bit.

as a disclaimer: i LOVE shelagh intensely. she's perhaps my favourite fictional character in ANY piece of media. of course i have my own fixed opinions, so this makes me inherently biased. take whatever i say with a pinch of salt, im just an internet lesbian.

damselification

there's a common take in the fandom that shelagh left the order just for patrick. i'd like to argue this isnt true. patrick was a massive part of her reason, and i'd even agree that falling for him gave her the final push, but we have evidence to suggest she was considering it LONG before we first saw the turnadette plot.

shelagh wanted to hang out with the GIRLS. shelagh saw jenny, trixie and cynthia's freedom and she wanted it. in the beginning, it had very little to do with a man. when she takes her wimple off and stands in front of the mirror, shes trying to find herself.

shelagh had a desire to be a free woman. being in love with patrick was a part of it, but not the whole picture.

even when she did choose to be with patrick, she made those decisions all on her own. she didn't read the letters he sent her until she was already certain of her choice. she wasn't going to be begged, and she wasn't going to beg him, either. shelagh would have left the order whether patrick really wanted to be with her or not.

in fics, shelagh is often portrayed as a helpless baby who needed patrick to save her from her indecision paralysis. i don't think this is true.

stupification (sex mention ahead!)

shelagh is a MIDWIFE. not only that, she's confirmed to be the most accomplished and talented in her field at nonnatus house. i would argue her intelligence and competence in her job is equal to, if not greater, than her husband's. she has an extensive knowledge of the female anatomy. she's studied it for years. she works with it every single day.

SO PLEASE STOP ACTING LIKE SHELAGH TURNER WOULDN'T KNOW WHAT A BLOODY CLITORIS IS! the amount of smut fics ive read that have been instantly ruined by patrick mansplaining her own anatomy to her is not ridiculously high, but it isnt zero either. and whenever it happens, it does my head in. i'm not saying shelagh's going to leave the order and immediately become an absolute sex goddess, that's also unrealistic. but dear god, she knows what her own bits are called. it's just another way she's infantilized and turned into a weak little angel baby who patrick has to smother and save.

on a less nsfw note, i just feel like some fics don't give shelagh's intelligence the credit it's due. it's hard to fully explain without giving examples (which i don't want to do bc i feel like that's unfair and really mean), but in general, patrick just hand-holds her a lot and explains basic things she'd have no trouble understanding on her own. girly is CLEVER. let her be clever.

#call the midwife #shelagh turner #had many a yappa yappa abt this so true so true

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Patsy Mount from Call the midwife ✍🏻

#call the midwife #ctm fanart

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Lucille Anderson from Call the midwife 🎨

#call the midwife #ctm fanart

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Trixie from Call the midwife ✏️

#call the midwife #ctm fanart

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Jenny Lee from Call the midwife ✏️

#call the midwife #ctm fanart #yoooo this slays

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screenshots from // Goodbye is Forever // by Arcadia (1985)

#arcadia #duran duran #nick rhodes #simon le bon

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Phyllis and Millicent continue to be the old woman qpr rep we all need

#frfr #call the midwife

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made this a while back….. just gonna post it for giggles

#FRFR #they giving us too much matrix honestly #turnadette #call the midwife

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#LITERALLY THO #they've been ignoring the literal poster couple of the show or doing them dirty for a hot min #blaming Trixie and mathew honestly #call the midwife #turnadette #patrick turner #shelagh turner #justice for Turnadette

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everyone after S13E04:

#real shit roo #dump him in there don't let him out #call the midwife

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Everyone after the latest episode:

#SLEEP WITH ONE EYE OPEN LORD FUCKFACE #stealing that tag it's too good not to #his days are numbered #call the midwife

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A couple scenes in this episode felt like they were setting Nancy and Tim to date, and while she's a couple years older than him it wouldn't be completely out of the question, but I hate the idea so much.

Please don't

#thissss #i think they would be good besties #but ar tims gay #call the midwife

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#divergent universe arc 8 is a wet paper towel <3 #doctor who #8th doctor

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dude call the midwife is called call the midwife because they call the midwife

#huge if true #call the midwife

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headcanon with evidence: shelagh turner is autistic/neurodivergent!

intense interests: shelagh's special interest is obviously the science of midwifery. she's only 30 years old at the beginning of the series, but already her expertise is virtually on par with the older nuns. her deep knowledge is very well respected by her patients and colleagues. she also LOVES to talk about it, you can see her face light up every time she has a chance.

hyperfocus: when shelagh is completely absorbed in a task, she struggles to notice anything else around her. for example, in the very first episode, she doesn't even notice jenny is in the room when she comes to inform sister julienne about her latest delivery. when sister julienne introduces her to jenny, she only very briefly acknowledges her, and then goes back to talking about work, which ties into -

struggling with social cues: in scenes with lots of shelagh dialogue, notice how she struggles to make prolonged eye contact. a notable exception is sister julienne and, later, patrick, but this makes sense. a lot of autistic people struggle to make eye contact generally, but have a few "safe people" with whom it's a lot easier. shelagh also struggles with boundaries, indicated by her lack of ability to ask for help when she needs it or say no when she's asked to do something. she can also be very blunt and forthright about her opinions, such as when she tells jenny to "please stop wittering on about vegetables, i could not care less." she wasn't trying to be rude, she was just indicating her disinterest in the subject in a very to-the-point way. also, when she was infodumping about the bri-nylon nightie, and CLEARLY misunderstanding cues that patrick thought she was extremely sexy in that little get-up 😳😏

stimming: shelagh is CONSTANTLY stimming. most notable are her hand movements, she fidgets with her hands a lot, and when she sits at a table, she often keeps her hands below the surface. i believe this is so she can subtly stim without attracting attention. oh, and you know the autistic stereotype of velociraptor arms? well, i give you...

masking: she's a social chameleon. her speech mannerisms were much more formal and clipped while she was still in the religious life, because she was holding herself to a certain standard, even though it's not necessarily required (look at sister evangelina). i think she was trying to model her behaviour and mannerisms on sister julienne, which is SO COMMON for autistic women to copy the behaviour of someone they admire in order to blend. she also "mirrors" body language, seen here. (both have their hands in their pockets, their legs are the same width apart. also peep my babygirl not making eye contact AGAIN while he's directly looking at her face!)

exaggerated facial expressions and emotive tone of voice: it's a common misconception that autistic people always have monotonous voices and flat facial affect. some do, but just as many are the complete opposite and actually have really varied expressions and tones. ctm fans who don't like shelagh tend to point this fact out about her, but to me it just makes her relatable, because i'm a really emotive autistic person too!

also, this is just anecdotal, but all of my autistic friends who watch ctm agree with me that shelagh is most likely autistic. and we're really good at identifying autistic traits in others.

these are just my observations from watching the show, as an autistic person. if you don't share these views, that's fine! but please be mindful of what you say if you aren't neurodivergent ♡

#the way i have a headcanon taht patrick is autistic soo like omg theyre autistic together <3 #i looove thisss im so glad someone else saw shelaghs dino hands she did it a few times last season as well #call the midwife #shelagh turner

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...

#Omg ive never seen this 😭😭😭 #it looked like an ad for one of them art trace sketching pad things at first 😭 #stephen mcgann