Watched some more Call the Midwife last night, and continue to be impressed with this show.
In S01 E04, Chummy is preparing to go to dinner and a movie with her beau, Constable Peter Noakes, and so Trixie tries to coach Chummy about how to behave when having dinner with a man she likes by giving lecture-demonstration that includes all sorts of conventionally feminine behaviors.
At first I was afraid that this ep was employing the trope of having the unconventionally feminine character think that she had to try to mimic stereotypically feminine behaviors in order to secure her man's love, thus setting her up for public humiliation when she attempts those behaviors and fails miserably, and thus giving the male character the opportunity to show how generous he is by forgiving the fumbling female for being who she is.
I was so relieved that this is not, in fact, what they did. Instead, they showed Chummy knowing that that kind of feminine presentation isn't for her, and that although Chummy is tall and ungainly and not conventionally beautiful she is still in command of herself and able to make decisions about how to conduct her relationships on her own terms. Further, although there was a lot of laughter between Chummy and Cynthia over what Trixie was trying to show them, it was all good-hearted and not at all derisive at Trixie's expense.
The show continued to respect Chummy's character in the scene where the nurses all go to a dance with Noakes and Jimmy, Jenny Lee's friend. Noakes asks Chummy to dance, but she demurs, saying that she doesn't know how. But Noakes doesn't care about that; he just wants to dance with his girl. Then when they show Noakes and Chummy dancing together it's clear that neither of them really know how to jitterbug, but it doesn't matter: they're trying their best, they're having fun, they're laughing when they can't quite get a move right or when the height difference makes a move difficult (Chummy is several inches taller than Noakes).
At no point does this scene poke any fun at Chummy's clumsiness, nor does it create a situation by which she embarrasses herself in public and needs to have her self-esteem rebuilt by her boyfriend. Chummy is shown as being worthy of love just by being who she is, and she doesn't have to be redeemed or gain a man's approval for that to be true.
It's so refreshing to watch a show about women that actually respects the women characters and treats them as people who matter in their own right.
