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

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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.