Girls’ feelings about motherhood shift from possession to self-preservation in adolescence.

Evidence

We have seen that in childhood and adolescence woman goes through several phases in connection with motherhood. When she is a little girl, it is a miracle and a game: she sees in the doll and she feels in the future child an object to possess and dominate. As an adolescent girl, on the contrary, she sees in it a threat to the integrity of her precious person. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1434

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets up the doll-stage versus adolescent-threat schema that structures her analysis of maternal ambivalence.
• XREF: connects to: Young girls perceive the world as a matriarchy governed by mother; An adolescent can experience motherhood as an assault on bodily self-possession. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1435; Puberty’s bodily changes alienate the girl from herself and the world — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 835 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Puberty’s bodily changes alienate the girl from herself and the world #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 835
• Precocious maturation exacts a later psychological price in renewed immaturity #complicates (0.72)