 Jasmine Rahman   Miss Representation: You Can't be What You
Can't See  Posted: 20/02/2012 11:23  From music videos to
magazines, billboards to the catwalk - the media and its
treatment of women is rarely held up to such close scrutiny as
it is in Miss Representation, Jennifer Siebel Newsom's powerful
documentary.  The film is a vivid and often moving exploration
of how media portrayals of women have led to their
underrepresentation in positions of power and influence in the
United States. While the American-made film focusses on the
situation in that country, the issues it raises will resonate
with British women and anyone who consumes mass media this side
of the Atlantic.  Growing up in a society immersed in media of
many forms it becomes harder and harder to tell where the line
blurs between images that are real and those that have been
enhanced though plastic surgery or airbrushing.  Girlguiding
UK's recent Girls' Attitudes Survey found that, of the 1,200
girls aged seven to 21 who took part, 47% feel the