‘Demandez à une personne de confiance, comme votre mère’: Representations of mothers and daughters in Mademoiselle Âge Tendre, 1968–1971

Abstract

This article considers visual and narrative representations of mothers and daughters in the understudied publication Mademoiselle Âge Tendre. Issues spanning the years 1968 to 1971 suggest a marked interest – in some cases, a reliance – on the mother figure who, from an adolescent's point of view in the late 1960s, would most likely have been considered conservative, traditional and belonging to the older generation of women. A closer look at advertisements for menstrual products, advice columns, health and wellness write ups and celebrity exposés reveal diverse representations of the mother–daughter link ( le lien mère-fille) that oscillates between reliance and independence, thus bringing into focus the larger question of intergenerationality, la jeunesse and the socio-cultural implications of May 1968.