The Representation of Women in English and Kurdish Magazines’ Cover Pages: A Critical Multimodal Perspective

This paper explores the multimodal discourses that underpin the representation of women in English and Kurdish magazines' cover pages (MCP) with a view to determine the similarities and differences in the way women are represented or misrepresented in this under researched media genre. The paper adopts a descriptive qualitative method and applies a critical multimodal discourse analytic approach to answer four broad questions: 1) what ideologies, identities, and values are buried in discourses on women in English and Kurdish MCPs textually and visually? 2) Are women represented positively or negatively in English and Kurdish MCPs 3) Are there intersemiotic complementarity between the textual and visual representations? 4) Are there any similarities and differences between the English and Kurdish MCPs in these regards? The results show that in both languages, with some minor differences, women are associated with glamour and acts of seduction through conventional female features via which they gain and maintain social power, rather than aligning them with rational and intellectual acts. Women are, furthermore, misrepresented as being commodified as they are advanced as accessories to draw the viewer's attention.


Introduction
There has been recently an intriguing surge of interest in researching media discourse, possibly with quintessential focus on more substantial media genres such as news, editorials, advertisements, press conferences and interviews, and mostly with a major convergence on verbal texts, disregarding the multisemiotic essence of media genres.Moreover, several studies have examined the representation of immigrants, minorities, veil and Muslims, whereas studies which address the representation of women in MCPs as a multimodal phenomenon are at a premium.More importantly, in particular, cross-linguistic and cross-cultural studies are missing in the existing literature.The current paper is, therefore, a scholarly endeavor to look into the multimodal discourses that underlie the representation of women in English and Kurdish MCPs in order to detect the similarities and differences in the way women are portrayed or misrepresented in MCPs in the two languages under study, an issue which has not previously been addressed, particularly in the Kurdish language in which multimodal studies are very sparse.It should be noted that media is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field which has been subjected to scrutiny in diverse domains of study (Bell & Garrett, 1998, p. 2).More than a source of 'infotainment' (Renkema, 2004, p. 76), mainstream media is an effective communicator of cultural norms and values that define the world and legitimize the social order through the use of language as a social power, and the language of media is viewed as a multilayered mode (Baig et al , 2020, p.414) akin to any other form of human communication which is essentially multimodal -a fact which was not in the limelight of discourse analysts as well as linguists for long years.Media discourse, more than ever, is one of the most pervasive and extensive discourses to which people from all types of literate societies are exposed (Weiss and Wodak, 2003, pp. 272-73).Hence, it plays a critical role in imposing views on the people through its hegemony and manipulative power over the society, for media consumption can reveal a great deal about the social meanings and stereotypes projected through the way reality is constructed in media discourse.However, the term discourse soon runs into terminological predicament as existing definitions are numerous; besides some accounts only loosely designate media discourse.Based on the key tenets of critical discourse analysis (CDA), which forms a major pillar on which the present study is founded, discourse is" the social construction of knowledge about reality" (Johnstone, 2007, p. 6).This view considers discourses to be 'communicative events' into which social practices are embedded; discourses, as Fairclough (1995, p.55), claims shape and are shaped by social practices.Succinctly, discourse inherently communicates or reproduces 'social identities', 'social relations', and 'systems of knowledge and believe'; it conducts ideological work and produces a society and culture (ibid, p.131).The merging of discourses into complexes known as ideology is neither accidental nor coincidental; it serves particular, definable societal goals.Semiotic objects, such as structures, written texts, casually told stories magazines' cover pages, films, gardens, the color, layout, and content of museums and supermarkets, and so on, serve as material sites for the merging of discourses and their material and naturalized form.Hence, behind every single use of semiotic resources with conjunction to text and speech there is a hidden ideology that serves a particular institution (Kress, 2010, pp. 110-112).Hence, in the sense of multimodality, joining discourses into complex ideologies is not a coincidence.Multimodal approaches to discourse hold that the multimodal structure of most media genres admits them to create ideological bias on various levels of communication and representation, namely linguistic and visual.This inevitably applies to the English as well as MCPs where a fundamental mode of representation is the image (s) that occupies much of the space of the cover to foster consumerism and serve neo-capitalist economic policy of media corporations, an observation which requires scholarly attention from researchers in in the field of MDA.The aims of the study are multifold: it presents an eclectic multidimensional analytical framework to offer a judicious critical multimodal analysis of the representation of women in both English and also Kurdish MCPs; it also aims to compare and contrast the English and Kurdish MCPs in this respect.To achieve the aims of the study and answer the research questions noted above, the study hypothesizes that: 1. discourses about women in the English and Kurdish MCPs, particularly in the visual mode, are marketed by media corporations or agencies through various semiotic choices to enhance their business; 2. in both English and Kurdish MCPs, though with some minor differences, women are commodified, materialized, and also deployed as accessories to draw the attention of the viewer; 3.In English as well as Kurdish MCPs women are hardly seen as truly acting upon the world.In lieu, their physical beauty and seduction are foregrounded , reproducing the traditional conception of female sexuality which signify their power in the society ; and 4. there is often no consistency between the verbal and the visual modes.In other words, the visual representation does not faithfully reflect the verbal.

Theoretical Framework
The study will shed light on some background theoretical assumptions deemed crucial to establish the grounds for the application of a critical multimodal to the intended data.

Multimodal Discourse Analysis
Multimodal discourse analysis (henceforth MDA), more commonly known as 'multimodality', is a newly emerging research paradigm that is concerned with extending the study of language to include additional resources such as image, scientific symbols, gesture, movement, music, sound, and color (Gee & Handford, 2012, p. 33) .It challenges the traditional linguistic view that language is the most salient, resourceful and most widely used mode of communication (Jewitt et al 2016, p. 15).Kress and Van Leeuwen (2001) describe multimodality as "the integration of various semiotic modes in the design of a semiotic product or event" (p.20).Thus, multimodality defines methods that perceive communication and representation to be more than just language, and which respond to the whole range of communicational forms people utilize such as image, gesture, gaze, posture, toys, color, layout…etc.and the links between them (Jewitt, 2009) (Jewitt, 2010, p. 14; Harrison 2008, p. 58; Lirola and Chovanec 2012, pp.488-89).Additionally, MDA deals with semiotic resources theory and analysis, as well as the semantic expansions that occur when semiotic choices combine in multimodal phenomenon.Inter-semiotic connections resulting from the interplay of semiotic choices are a key focus of multimodal research (Jewitt 2009).MDA also involves careful analysis of the design, production, and distribution of multimodal resources in social settings ( e.g.Van Leeuwen, 2008), as well as the resemioticisation of multimodal phenomena as social practice unfolds (Hyland and Paltridge 2011, p.121); it is not, as Pirini (2020, p. 1) asserts about isolating and analyzing modes but about comprehending the world as a multimodal construct.According to Machin and Mayr (2012), MDA examines the visual semiotic choices which inevitably reflect speakers'/writers' ideology on a specific subject or social actor.In this vein, it investigates how certain social actors are represented, misrepresented, or repressed through various textual and semiotic tools.Based on Social Semiotic Theory (Halliday 1978), MDA assumes that there are a variety of tools to portray the same individual or action , for no textual or visual account is neutral rather it is loaded with hidden messages that are high on the agenda of particular institutions such as government, political parties, and also media corporations.In line with this is Jewitt's (2011, pp.[15][16] view which acknowledges that multimodality is based on the notion that the meaning of signs fashioned from multimodal semiotic resources is, similar to speech, social.In other words, they are, in effect, formed by the norms and the regulations at the time of sign-making, which are impacted by the motives and interests of a sign maker in a given social context.It naturally follows that the contemporary English and Kurdish magazines, particularly in their cover pages, provide a negative textual and visual representation of women to serve their consumerism practices on the one hand, and reproduce the traditional social view that beauty and seductiveness are the source of women's power on the other, discounting their intellectual, professional skills, and their active role in many facets of life.Conversely, a critical MDA analytic approach will be an optimal one to explore how this account of women is practiced in the current English and Kurdish MCPs both textually i.e. linguistically and visually.

Critical Discourse Analysis
Critical discourse analysis (henceforth CDA) can be defined as a problem-oriented interdisciplinary research program that encompasses a variety of approaches, each with their own theoretical models, research methods, and agendas, but what they all have in common is a shared interest in the semiotic dimensions of power, identity politics, and political-economic or cultural change in society (Hyland and Paltridge, 2011, p. 38).The term critical has been essential to CDA, in the same way as it was in critical linguistics.In particular, CDA denotes a shift away from the more descriptive aims of linguistics and discourse analysis, where the emphasis has been on identifying and analyzing linguistic aspects rather than why and how these features are generated and what possible ideological goals they could serve (Machin & Mayr, 2012, p.5).It is, thus, used to examine texts to find out how structures, tactics or other features of text, oral, and , more recently, visual or multimodal communication play a role in the development and maintenance of unequal power relations (Abdullah & Mukundan, 2014, p. 28).In essence, CDA is regarded as the analysis of opaque and transparent structural relationship of dominance, discrimination, power and control manifested in language (Weiss & Wodak, 2003, p. 15).In other words, CDA may explore issues such as gender, ideology, and identity and how these are reflected in particular texts Paltridge, 2012, p. 186).It, therefore, aims to investigate critically social inequality as it is expressed, constructed, legitimized, and so on (Weiss & Wodak, 2003, p.15).Moreover, CDA is a type of analysis that is concerned with the larger message, philosophy, ideology, or concept expressed rather than merely going beyond the limit of the sentence.CDA informs the reader or listener about the writer's or speaker's intention and exposes something previously unknown (Knap & Daly, 2011, pp.105-106).Hence, CDA's concern is with the opacity of texts and utterance, the discursive construction or stories that are embedded in texts as information that is less readily available to consciousness.To put it in different words, CD analysts investigate how language and other semiotic modalities shape social life, seeing discourse as a type of social practice.As a result, discourse studies are not the exclusive domain of linguists; researchers working in fields such as sociology, culture, philosophy, or psychology -to name a fewalso investigate the relationship between language and society (Rogers, 2004, pp. 5-10).In the light of these views, CDA forms a cornerstone in any study on the representation of social actors ( e.g.women, elderly, minorities…etc.)including the current one which aims to pursue the representation of women in English and Kurdish MCPs.

Analytical Framework and Methodology
After introducing the theoretical framework on Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis, and also highlighting the interrelationship between discourse, society and the media, this section will specifically explore the visual and the linguistic semiotic resources or choices available for representing women in English and Kurdish MCPs.To this end, it seeks to sketch a model in the quest for providing a meticulous analysis of the selected data from a critical multimodal discourse analysis perspective in the two languages under study.CDA models that seek to unravel the ideological dimensions that loaded in language i.e. discourse are numerous.Nevertheless, few of these models are categorical (explicit) in the way they relate discourse to the underlying ideologies.Moreover, Jewett et al (2016) behold that there exists no approach to multimodality which is absolutely 'right' or 'best'; each approach stipulates a distinct lens on the world.A researcher, they recommend, needs to "consider the aptness and coherence of an approach for a study" (p.131).In line with these, the analytical framework in the present study integrates Kress and van Leeuwen (1996;2001;2006) pioneering model for visual communication with Machin and Mayr's (2012) framework for critical discourse analysis model of representing social actors and social action for the linguistic or textual analysis, all of which are deeply rooted in Halliday's Social Semiotic Theory (1978,1985), and which together form an eclecticmultidimensional as well as multimodal framework deemed adequate for exploring how women are manifested in English and Kurdish MCPs both visually and verbally.As far as the visual analysis is concerned, Kress and van Leeuwen (ibid), relying on Halliday (1985), behold that a visual text comprises three dimensions of meaning, namely representational, interactive, and compositional parallel to the metafunctions realised by language: ideational, interpersonal and textual respectively.The representational meaning represents a process-based part of the experience reality (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006).At the representational level, there are two processes: conceptual and narrative.The conceptual processes depict ideas in pictures, whereas the narrative processes reflect participants in activities or events that are occurring.The conceptual processes portray static ideas, whereas the narrative processes depict two or more individuals connected by vectors that depict them doing something to or for one another (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006).The interactional component focuses on the interaction between the persons portrayed and their viewers.Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) suggest three categories that convey the interaction metafunction: contact (gaze), angle, social distance, color, and modality.Contact is the presence or absence of gaze from the represented participant, which may be an offer or demand; angle is the way that the image is taken either horizontally or vertically.Social distance is the angle or size of the frame in which an image is depicted, which determines the social distance between the represented participant and its viewers; as a semiotic resource, color is referred to as a mode that, like other modes, can be used for a variety of purposes.The last element is modality which indicates the degree of truthfulness of the images.Compositional function refers to the organization and layout of picture components.It focuses on how representational and interactive aspects are blended into a meaningful whole" (Kress & Van Leeuwen 2006).Information value, salience, and framing are three systems connected to the arrangement of a picture.Information value emphasizes the value assigned to the various placements of items in respect to one another in a visual element.A visual image's concept of salience considers how the elements of that image have been composed in order to draw viewers' attention, interest, and focus (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006); the term "framing" refers to the border lines and space that connect or disconnect the elements of a visual image (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006).The following diagram represents the three metafunctions with their categories that adapted from the theoretical framework used for the data analysis.The figure below summarizes the framework by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006).
As regards the linguistic analysis, as noted above, Machin and Mayr (2012, pp.77, 104) outline two facets of representation: representing social actors and also representing social action, relying, in order, on Van Leewuen (1996) and Halliday (1985).These authors maintain that the sign-maker has a number of linguistic semiotic choices when using semiotic resources to determine how they want to depict or represent individuals and groups of people who, in CDA, are sometimes referred to as social actors' or 'participants', and the area of semiotic choices is called 'representational strategies' (Fairclough 2003 participant may be personalized through using their personal names or impersonalized through naming the institution to which they affiliate.Impersonalisation gives weight to a particular social actor or situation (Professor Jhon Smith vs the university).

Individualisation vs collectivization:
A participant can be described as in individual or as part of a collectivity (two soldiers vs militants).

Specification vs genericization:
one can see if participants are as unique people by their name or as a generic kind such as women, youth, Muslim…etc.

Nomination vs functionalization:
Participants may be designated by their characteristics(who they are or functionalized by being portrayed in terms of what they do i.e. in terms of their jobs (e.g.George W Bush vs The American President.5. Objectivation : In this case, a feature is used to represent participation such as beauty for a women, or bravery for a man. It should be noted that the entire, broad apparatus of Machin and Mayr's model are not verbatim utilized; rather emphasis is placed on the above mentioned categories that have their manifestations relatively in the data as the textual messages i.e the captions are fairly short.Table 1 sums up the representative strategies.Table 1.Representing Social Actors Representing social action involves framing the participants by the transitivity system of representation i.e. of how participants are depicted as 'acting' or 'not acting' (Machin and Mayr 2012: 104).In simple terms, transitivity is concerned with "who does what to whom, and how" (Eggins 2004: 213).Transitivity analysis is a powerful ideological tool which takes a crucial part in the meaning making process as it basically shows which participant is agent, senser, affected, goal, patient, or phenomenon.Transitivity analysis requires a characterization of three facets of meanings: participants including the performer and the recipient of a process; processes which are relised by verbs; and circumstances: which many be adverbial and prepositional phrases denoting the time, place or the manner a process occurs (Halliday 2004: 170).Accordingly the first step in transitivity analysis is to specify the participants and then the process types adopted in a clause.Broadly, the following process types ca be distinguished: 1. Material process: is one that entails doing certain physical acts in order to accomplish a goal.

Mental process:
The participant's internal world is reflected in the participant's mental processes when two participants are involved thats Senser and Phenomenon.3. Behavioral processes: serve as a bridge between the mental and the physical.It relates to certain human physiological processes.

Representational Strategies
Personalization vs impersonalization: Individualisation vs collectivization Specification vs genericization Nomination vs functionalization Objectivation 4. Verbal processes: refer to the movement of messages through language.In other words, saying something is a physical action that affects mental operation.5. Relational Processes: It is the process of being.Meaning to say that something is being something else.Therefore, there are two entities that are related to each other.6.Existential processes: refers to the existence or occurrence of something.In this case, the word "there" serves as a distinguishing identifier for the clause.The following table displays the transitivity system of linguistic analysis: Table 2

Material Process Mental Process Behavioral Process Verbal Process Relational Process Existential Process
It is worthwhile to note, to achieve precision and clarity, the analytical framework will be applied to the data into major phases: the visual analysis which encompasses the representational, interactive, and compositional metafunctions; and the linguistic analysis which comprises representing social actors and social action

Data Collection and Coding
the data for the present study were collected from electronic and print magazines during May to July , 2022.The data are selected based on the images that have some captions in order to fulfill the essence of multimodal phenomenon.they are the most prominent and current active magazines in both societies.Four MCPs are selected, two for each languages, namely, Vogue, Allure for the English MCPs which are chosen as electronic online MCPs, and printed Zhin and TV magazines for the Kurdish data.These samples are representative of hundreds of others which readers encounter daily.As far as coding is concerned, each MCP is given a letter that stands for language: E for English and K for Kurdish, and a serial number to be easily set apart from other MCPs.For example, the first MCP is coded as EMCP1, the second as EMCP2, and so on.

Data Analysis
This section is devoted to the analysis of the selected data based on the eclectic model sketched above.2006).In spite of this, the woman appears to be a young fashion model because to her seminaked clothing, attractiveness, lips, and odd hair style.B. Interactive Metafunctions: For the gaze, the woman looks directly at the viewer: she is in the Demand gaze, which indicates that she is attempting to connect with the audience with a welcoming expression.The viewer is recognized and a reaction is anticipated, same as when the viewer is spoken to in person.The sort of demand and mood of the place are then influenced by other factors.There may be a friendly demand while maintaining social distance (Machin and Mayr, 2012).As for the angle, the image is captured horizontally from the front.Frontal horizontal aspect creates a sense of connection between the viewer and the participant in EMCP1.Medium angle is utilized to create an equal interaction with the viewer.This is the objective of the majority of women's lifestyle magazines; the participant is used to attract the viewer's attention.In accordance with social distance, the head, shoulders, and waist are visible in the image; hence, the image is characterized as "far personal distance."This distance is beyond a person's ability to touch with ease.This distance is used to discuss personal hobbies and involvements (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).In order to attract the viewer's attention, the magazine displays the women on the magazine's cover, who become the magazine's focus with their semi-nude clothes Regarding the color, the 'value' scale is utilized.The image is dominated by the color black and her pale light skin.The dark tone of her dress, her bright face, shiny lipstick, and breast skin glows through, drawing the viewer's attention.The woman resembles a fashion model rather than a practical woman (van Leeuwen, 2002).The combination of her pale skin, black outfit, and black hair shows that women magazine has built an idealized world to depict women.In addition, the mix of these colors indicates to the viewer that this is more fantastical than realistic (Ledin & Machin, 2020).As a result of the color combination, the abstracted background, and her attitude, the image loses its realness and becomes surreal.To demonstrate how this sort of analysis applies to this particular image, the background is out of focus, the texture of the model's clothing and accessories are flat, and the colors are mixed for ideological bearing.The lighting on her clothing and skin is pretty bright.The image appears to be significantly overexposed.

C. Compositional Metafunctions:
The picture can be exhibited in two positions: in the center or along the margin, depending on the image's information value.The participant's central place in the image suggests that she is the primary subject of the image.The RP's image is the first thing the viewer notices since it is bigger and brighter.Her size is also impressive.To further emphasize her prominence, the surrounding is veiled and abstracted.Instead, the caption is placed in a bottom margin part, suggesting items that are less important than the center of attention (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).This implies that the media have the capability to influence people's perceptions about women's sexuality and physical beauty.The media is able to engage its audience in this way.Because of her dress, makeup, and hair color, the woman appears to be the most salient element in this image.The title appears to be the second most salient element, while the rest are considered less significant by the salient (Ledin and Machin, 2020).It is Machin and Mayr (2012) who argue that women must attract the attention of society, and they do so by portraying their sexual body and outward look in this way to accomplish this goal of driving attention to them.When it comes to the frame, there isn't one that represents the entire image uniformly.The two share a common space, whether text is integrated into (or layered on) the pictorial space or a picture is embedded in (or overlaid) on) textual content (van Leeuwen, 2005).This is ideological; it aims to demonstrate how magazines portray women in order to pique the interest of viewers with their depictions of women's bodies and certain sexual characteristics.In spite of this, women are no longer shown in women's magazines as housewives or mothers.A job to impress viewer or a need for sexual escapism are two of their primary motivations.

Linguistic Analysis (EMCP1) A. Representing Social Actors:
The following representative strategies are rendered in EMCP1: 1

. Personalization vs Impersonalization
The social actor (participant) , in EMCP1, is personalized through the participant's personal name, Sellena Gomiz, as there is no reference to any institutions or corporations with which she affiliates.Impersonalized reference gives weight to statements (Machin and Mayr, 2012), but here the women, though a celebrity, is engaged with herself.

Indivitualisation vs collectivization
The participant is indivdulaized mainly because the caption includes is selfcentered mainly because the pronoun I discludes any other social actor; thus there is no any sense of collectivsation.This individualization brings her closer to the viewer and makes her more eyecatching.

Nomination and Functionalization
No

Phenomenon
Although the social actor doesn't take any action and merely shares her feelings about having complete control over her life in the above table, it appears that she is part of the relational process.The relational process is depicted by the use of the verb be in 'am in charge' in this analysis, which identifies the speaker as the senser of that relation.That the female figure is never given a professional, business, or practical role in the media tells us that media portrays women as only expressing their emotions or relations, not their roles as active agents.In summary, the visual and linguistic analysis of EMCP1, points to the conclusion that women's roles in visual and linguistic representation are passive; the participant doesn't do anything but stare at the viewer, and she just conveys her feelings and imagination verbally.Her physical and sexual attractiveness, however, is used to fulfill the media's purpose of grabbing the attention of readers and viewers, and she is, therefore, exploited by the media, for the media employs her sexuality and her physical appearance to serve acts of consumerism The figure shows a model, attractive, and glamour woman wearing seminaked clothes and a tattoo in her back, according to representational metafunctions, the image is conceptual since the woman depicted is not moving or doing any actions (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).Despite this, the lady looks to be a young fashion model because to her semi-naked outfit, beauty, shiny lips, and her strange hair style.B. Interactive Metafunction; here, the primary tool is eye contact or gaze.In terms of eye contact, this photograph is a "demand image" since the model is staring directly at the viewer, implying social affinity and relationship with the audience.The model's appearance leads viewers to assume a romantic relationship with her because she wants them to accept the message she is conveying about herself (van Leeuwen, 2005).The picture is at vertical frontal eye-level, which implies the involvement of both the represented social actor and the viewer, since both are members of the same group and are of similar social position.This implies that, the media intentionally portrays the magazine's cover in this manner to arouse the viewer's interest in the cover through the usage of this model woman.In terms of social distance, the close-up image of the human subject displays the model's engagement with the audience and the intimacy between the RP and the viewer, as they can easily touch her.The frame size of the cover issue, which includes a close-up of the model's face, establishes a "warm and personal" interaction with the viewer.A young woman is shown as if they are friends and neighbors, allowing viewers to imagine being as close to this figure as if they had an informal and intimate relationship (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).This also creates the ideological impression that women are always discriminated against, since the media seeks to establish a link between the viewer and the RP in order to increase the magazine's profits.Consequently, the woman is comparable to a toy since their sexual body and look are modified for commercial interests.Moreover, regarding the color, the scale of purity is used in this cover magazine, because the white color is the dominant of the image.The term 'purity' already suggest something of the meaning potential of this aspect of color (Ledin and Machin, 2020).The color white is associated with innocence and purity.In addition, her lips are pink indicating a model modern woman.There is a high lighting in her skin suggests modernism, and optimism.The background is abstracted which serves to symbolize rather than documenting any practical attempt to achieve success (Machin and Mayr, 2012).Concerning the modality, although the identity of the RP is known, the background of the image is abstract and the color white and the color of her lipstick are highly saturated.Yet, the image loses it truthfulness and it becomes unnatural (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).The ideology here is that women are always manipulated and controlled by the media, they are misrepresented in a way in order to get the viewer's attention.C. Compositional Metafunctions; regarding the compositional metafunction, the picture is shown in two ways based on its information value: the center and along the margin.The participant's position in the center of the frame implies that she is the major focus of the image.The viewer's focus is immediately drawn to her photograph because it is bigger and brighter.Her size is equally impressive within the cover.In addition, the background is obscured and abstract, since she is the primary subject of the image.In contrast, the caption appears at the margin of the cover, denoting subordinate elements (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).This implies that the media have the ability to manipulate the viewer's thoughts, which they do through the sexual body and look of women.This is how media captures the audience's attention.According to salience, the woman is the most salient element because of the size of her picture, the colors of her skin, lipstick, and hair, and her semi-naked clothes are the most eye-catching element.Further, the magazine's title is the second most salient element, while the other parts are less prominent (Ledin and Machin, 2020).Previous research on the representation of women in the media and on the sexism in language (Fowler, 1991) shows that women are manifested in discourse as a distinct group with unique characteristics, detached from the general population for particular scrutiny.Among the characteristics associated with women are irrationality, family dependence, useless and sexual and physical excess.As is clear from this instance, women are always appreciated more for their physical attractiveness than their abilities.The picture expresses a certain set of thoughts regarding femininity, attractiveness, and excitement.The provocative dress, hair style, and sensual lipsticks demonstrate that the magazine prioritizes being appealing in order to draw the reader's attention (Machin and Mayr, 2012).Regarding the frame, there is none; the entire image is rendered in a single manner.Text and picture occupy the same space; either the text is incorporated into (or superimposed on) the visual space, or the image occupies the textual space.This is ideological; it attempts to describe the true world of lifestyle women's magazines and how they portray women to spark the viewer's interest via the body and some sexual features of women.Women's magazines no longer depict women in domestic contexts, as (house) wives and mothers.They are either employed or seek excitement and enjoyment, especially sexual excitement (van Leeuwen, 2005).

Linguistic Analysis (EMCP2) A. Representing Social Actors
In EMCP2, above, only three representational strategies are at work:

Personalization vs Impersonalisation
The participant is in between personalization and impersonalisation, for, on the one hand, she is personalized through her personal name, and on the other her name is linked to a movie in which Gaga took part, though her action is not fully actively represented

Individualization vs Collectivazation
Similar to EMCP1, the use of the first person personal pronoun marks the participant as individualized, as opposed to collectivized, bringing the participant closer to the viewers and more likely to attract their attention.

Nomination vs Functionalization
Although there is reference to Gaga's big film, she is not functionalized.She is nominated in terms of her personal name; This backgrounds the fact that she is a movie star and indicates that priorities are given to her femininity, as evidenced also by the visual representation.

B. Representing Social Action
The transitivity analysis, as shown in The above table indicates that the social actor is included in a material process, However, the agency is weak partly because the goal is not a human (the goal in this case called instrumental) in and partly because the goal is unspecified in the second clause.van Leeuwen (2008) argues that this kind of instrumental transaction is critically vital as it mitigates agency; so she does not directly act on people but on their lives.This signals that media do not give a professional, business and practical role to the female character, rather their role is always passive in which they are either expressing their feelings or becoming the goal of the process.It naturally follows that in EMCP2, the role of women in both visual and linguistic representation is passive, the participant doesn't take any action, rather she just gazes on the viewer, and linguistically she just expresses her feeling and imagination.Yet, she becomes a tool for the media in order to impress the viewer, and her physical appearance is shown to fill the media's goal, that's to get the reader's and viewer's attention.4) represents one participant who appears to be doing nothing except touching her chin and there is also a caption ‫لە‬ ‫'دەمەوێت‬ ‫بدەم'‬ ‫نیشان‬ ‫ژن‬ ‫ی‬ ‫تواناکان‬ ‫کارەکانمەوە‬ ‫ڕێگای‬ (I want to show the abilities of women through my works).In addition, there is not a vector within the image except the woman is doing a gesture by using her hand, hence the image fits into Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006) description of conceptual processes and the social actor becomes passive.The body gesture that the woman does is the hands-on chin gesture that is generally observed when someone is thinking about a difficult problem or trying to solve a complex issue.It is also usual for individuals to touch their chin while they're thinking what to say next.This motion might also be viewed as a sign of doubt and uneasiness.It may also be used as an indicator that the individual is feeling troubled with all the choices before them.Hence the participant is having the hand-on chin gesture which represented the troublesome and difficult situation that Kurdish women are living in, she wants to decide on showing up her works in order to show the ability of women, at the same time by her body gesture she feels insecure and fearful because Kurdish women are always looked down as they are controlled by the male ones (Taylor, 2020).

B. Interactive metafunction
Concerning gaze, the woman looks directly at the viewer 'Demand', indicating that she is attempting to connect with the audience.She wants to invite people to her imaginary world.Concerning the angle, the image is taken vertically with obliqueness and the viewer looks up to the actor indicating that the she has symbolic influence over the spectator, whether as an authority or a role model (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).Media here is not representing the participant as a usual or eye-level angle instead it is vertical, oblique and looking up this may stand against the efforts that she is trying to do and this suggests optimism .In other words, media depicts her in this manner, this is also an ideological message because media does never show the reality of the things.Additionally, for the social distance, the area from the head to the waist is visible which indicates 'personal distance' (Hall, 1966).The participant wants to show the personal subjects and involvement to the spectator that is she wants to represent her ability and her works.Regarding the color, there is high saturation of the color.Her face namely, her eyes, lips, cheek, forehead, and her ring are fully saturated.The ideological bearing here is that she is telling the viewer that through her works she wants to show her abilities at the same time she is depicted as a model woman, who shows up her beauty.Her make-up, hair-style, rings, bracelets, her cloth, and even she has a tattoo in her hand shows a model woman not a practical one.The media here abstracts her because there could be another way to depict her while she is working or at her office.As for the modality, the color is high saturated, the way she takes the picture is not normal, and the background is quite opposite to the foreground and the social actor; hence the image is unreal and loses its credibility.The idea here is that if she is a hard working woman, media should depict her in another way.As a result, the image is over-exposed due to its high color saturation, the cloths, make-up, ring, bracelets, tattoos indicating extensive color coordination in the image, between the participant's color and the setting that's to say the background, because the background which is abstract and it is out of the focus (Machin and Mayr, 2012).C. Compositional metafunction; first of all, information value, the image is represented in two ways that's center and margin.The woman is positioned in the center of the frame, indicating that she is the central focus of the image.The viewer's eyes are immediately drawn to the participant's picture since it is the greater and most colorful part.Her size is also noteworthy.Moreover, the background is obscured and abstract, as she becomes the most important part of the image.On the other hand, the caption is represented in the below margin of the cover, which indicates elements that are subservient to the center (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).The ideology here is that since she is a hard-working woman, her works should come at the center of the image that's the caption.By contrast , the media represents the woman in a fairy tale way that the viewer only pay attention to the beauty she has, the way she stands and the things relates to her physical appearance.The caption that must have been the center, as it is about the social actor's ability, is put in a small circle around the below margin that is totally ignored or backgrounded.Regarding the salience, again the RP is the most salient part since she has been given the largest size, most color, the center of the image.This, again, indicates that women is always paid attention by their physical beauty not her abilities.The image communicates a particular set of values about glamour, excitement, and women's identity (Machin and Mayr, 2012) The revealing dress, accessories, sensuous, lipsticks suggest that looking glamorous is high on the agenda of the magazine aiming to attract the attention of the viewer.According to the frame, this image has great framing since the foreground and background are well differentiated.The woman is placed in the front to support her figure as the image's most prominent element.In the same vein, the ideological here is that women are not given their rights in relation to their jobs, the participant is talking about her works to show the abilities of women at the same time media represents her beauty rather than what she is thinking and planning about.This means that the media reproduces the traditional views about woman's physical appearance.

Linguistic Analysis (KMCP2) A. Representing Social Actors
As far as KMCP1 is concerned, the representation strategies suggest the following ones

Personalization vs Impersonalisation
Providing the name of the participant is part of the process of personalization as opposed to impersonalisation, which does not give any sense of agency and power; no weight is given to her position.

Individualisation vs collectivization
Similar to many other examples, the social actor in KMCP1 is individualized through the personal morpheme ‫(م)‬ twice in the clause.No sign of collectivization is observed.

Specification and Genericisation
It can be argued that the participant is represented as a generic type, ‫ژن‬ (woman) which is a clear indication that women are misjudged in the Kurdish society as being vulnerable and sensual which makes them illegible for professional success.

Nomination vs Functionalisation
The social actor is nominated ‫,(ژيان(‬ using her personal name without any functional titles or honorifics

B. Representing Social Action
An analysis of transitivity of the clause I want to show the abilities of women through my works, runs as follows:

Phenomenon
The above data indicates that mental process is present in her speech, and it is affection.This process is indicated by the term ' ‫ی‬ ‫'ویست‬ "want," which communicates desire and thus reflects the mental process.Here, the senser is ‫'من'‬ (I) as indicating the one who feels.The phenomenon is ‫نیشان‬ ‫ژن‬ ‫ی‬ ‫تواناکان‬ ‫کارەکانمەوە‬ ‫'لەڕێگای‬ ‫.بدەم'‬The hidden ideology here is that according to the role allocation the RP is linguistically senser.She becomes passive and she only expresses her feelings to the reader or it can suggest that she only reacts and this can also convey passivity in the sense that she is not the agent of any actual physical actions.As the result, in terms of both visual and linguistic analysis, the viewer observes a woman wearing casual clothing as opposed to a business suit, which would have suggested ambition and ruthlessness, who is also smiling and placing her hand on her chin.It is not observed that a lady engaging in the same verbal activity that is linguistic representation.The viewers do not observe her manipulating or sympathizing with others.Hence, linguistically she is a senser which gives her a passive role and visually she is also passive and she looks like a model rather than a practical and business woman.This clarifies that both representation that's verbal and non-verbal is showing the woman as passive and resistless (Machin and Mayr, 2012).It is worthwhile to note that the visual and the linguistic representation are inconsistent as they reflect two different identities.The linguistic representation suggests the idea of a women seeking success through her abilities, while the visual is an image of a model beautiful woman through color saturation and excessive lighting on some parts of her face.

KMCP 2 Figure 5. KMCP2 1. Visual Analysis (KMCP2)
A. Representational Metafunction KMCP2 displays a woman smiling to the viewer and wearing a necklace, a watch, and an attractive Kurdish uniform, with her hand putting on her chin with a caption ‫ی‬ ‫'لەبەرنامەکان‬ ‫انەی‬ ‫ڕۆژ‬ ‫ی‬ ‫ژیان‬ ‫لە‬ ‫دەدەین‬ ‫پرسانە‬ ‫ئەو‬ ‫هەموو‬ ‫بە‬ ‫بایەخ‬ ‫بەیانیاندا‬ ‫داوەتەوە'‬ ‫ڕەنگیان‬ ‫کەرکوکیدا‬ ‫تایک‬ ‫تایبەت‬ ‫بە‬ ‫تاکێکمان،‬ ‫هەر‬ (In morning programs, we will focus on all the issues reflected in our daily lives , especially the life of an individual in Kirkuk).It reflects a conceptual meaning because the RP does not do any action, and it falls under the category of a symbolic process in which the necklace, watch, and her clothing signify the woman's identity (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).And her hand gesture symbolizes that she is thinking in a difficult situation, at the same time she doesn't take any actions and she becomes passive.The image implies that women are only after the beauty, elegance, and physical body and appearance.Thus, they are intentionally put in this way in order to get the viewer's attraction.

B. Interactive metafunction
As for interactive metafunction; the first tool is gaze or visual contact.In terms of visual contact, the image qualifies as a "demand image" since the model stares straight at the audience with a smile, indicating social affinity and relationship with the audience.The model's look compels viewers to imagine a relationship with her, as she expects them to embrace the message she is portraying about herself (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).The smile on her face stands out among several shades of meaning, such as satisfaction, harmony, and happiness.The ideological bearing is she is unaware that she is used as a tool because she is represented in a way as if she is advertising for her skin, watch, bracelet, and her colorful clothes.About the angle, the woman is depicted in a vertical eye-level indicating that the RP and the viewer is one of equality.Concerning the social distance; it is close personal distance, because only the head and the parts of the shoulder is visible and this indicates 'intimate' relation (Hall, 1966).Intimate distance including direct touch, as in love making, comforting, and showing beauty most often in women's lifestyle magazines.However, the producer tries to make a direct contact between the RP and the viewer in order to get the viewer's attention, and that's what most of the cover magazines tries to do.However, the viewer here is likely to experience the feeling of warmth and closeness with the RP (Ledin and Machin, 2020), and that's what most of the cover magazines do in order to get the viewer engaged with their magazines.Moreover, color is another semiotic recourse for communicating the ideas, the image is modulated by means the colors that are used is fully modulated and more than natural which are textured with different shades, as colors as seen in the natural world, to flat colors with no such shades.The colors from her bright lighting blue to her dark black hair suggests an idealized world that women magazine has created to represent women.In addition, the combination of these colors tells the viewer that this is fantasy and less real world (Ledin and Machin, 2020).Regarding the modality, due to its high modulated color, and the abstracted background the image loses its truthfulness, and it becomes unreal image.To illustrate how this type of analysis works with this specific image, the backdrop is out of focus, the texture of the model's clothes and accessories are flat, and the colors are modulated.the lighting is quite bright on her clothing and skin.The image looks to be extremely overexposed.this implies that dressing in an overtly sexual way might be considered "transgressive" and "naughty."the women to some extend fulfills a male fantasy, and that's the ideological bearing behind the reason why magazines depict women in this way (Machin and Mayr, 2012).C. Compositional metafunction About the compositional metafunction; according to information value, the image is shown in two ways: in the center and along the margin.The position of the RP in the middle of the frame indicates that she is the image's main focus.The viewer's attention is initially pulled to the RP's image since it is larger and more bright.Her size is likewise remarkable.In addition, the background is obscured and abstract, as she becomes the major focus of the image.At contrast, the caption appears in the bottom edge of the cover, denoting things that are subordinate to the center (Kress and van Leewuen, 2006).This connote that media have the power to control the thought of the viewer and how media control this is by the sexual body and appearance of women.Through this, media gets the viewer's attention.According to the salient, the women is the most salient part due to the size of the image, colors of her clothing, lipstick, and hair, the title of the magazine is the second most salient, and the other parts are less salient ones (Ledin and Machin, 2020).Analysis of the portrayal of women in the media.Even the smallest sample, gathered routinely without seeking out especially dramatic cases, reveals that women are constructed in discourse as a distinct category with distinctive features, separated out from the general population for special evaluation.Some of the features attributed to women include irrationality, familial reliance, powerlessness and sexual and physical excess; these are features of the paradigm for this 'group' that have been identified by previous writers on sexism in language (Fowler, 1991).As in this case, demonstrates that women are always valued for their physical appearance rather than their ability.The image conveys a certain set of ideas on femininity, beauty, and excitement.The revealing outfit, accessories, and sensual lipsticks show that appearing attractive is a priority for the magazine in order to grab the viewer's attention (Machin and Mayr, 2012).Concerning the frame, there is not any frame the whole image is represented in one way.yet, Text and image share the same space either the text is integrated into (or actions; thus, they remain passivated (Van Leewuen 2008).

Discussion of the Results
Careful analysis of the data in both languages reveals the following results: 1. Women are misrepresented in both English and the Kurdish MCPs.The "ideal" woman is shown on the cover of a magazine by stereotyped visual components describing how certain body parts should seem to achieve this ideal.The ideology of female beauty and the idealized image of the female body in the visual mode compel women to be attractive and accepted by society, especially by males.Images of ideal-appearing women serve as a model for women, through which the female body is viewed as an object, produced according to masculine aspirations, and employed as an accessary.This verifies the hypotheses (1) and (2). 2. Women are depicted as a sexual tool in order to impress the viewer, their bodies, colorful semi-naked clothes, and accessories are used to get the viewer's attention.This verifies the hypothesis ( 2).Closer inspection shows that , due cultural differences, in Kurdish MCPs, the body is not much foregrounded; the focus is on the face, Whereas, the the semi-nude clothes in English MCPs indicates that the women's body is overexposed and her seductiveness is highlighted.3.Visually, the English and the Kurdish MCPs represent women in conjunction to their physical and sexual bodies.For example, the use of representational metafunctions, the structures of the woman as a social actor are always conceptual indicating that women do not take any action and they are always passive.They are represented in a manner that their semi-naked bodies are foregrounded.This authenticates hypothesis (3). 4. Regarding the interactive metafunction, gaze is utilized as a semiotic choice to depict the relationship between pictures, whether there is direct eye contact or not (depending on a demand or offer image).Thus, female portrayed pictures may be displayed as developing a close relationship with the viewer by way of direct eye contact in the visual image.Regarding the angle, they are represented in horizontal frontal eye level.Thus it indicated that these depictions of women as sexual objects make them weak.In the majority of cases, the head, shoulder, and waist are represented indicating that women are represented as beautiful, attractive commodies to attack the viewer.Concerning the color and modality, the MCPs use high saturated, fully modulated colors.As a visual modality indicator, for instance, color signifies the sexual attraction and beauty of the displayed female image.The greater the reduction in color, the lower the image's modality.This can be expressed by the selection of different color values to show shade and brightness.In addition, the backboard of each MCP is abstracted.This result validates the hypothesis (3). 5.As for the compositional metafunction, the women always occupy the center stage, and they are the most salient part of the image.As for the frame, all the components of MCPs are portrayed together without any frames.These representations create an imaginary world for the women, in which women are foregrounded for the ideological bearing, in which their physical bodies and appearance are most prominent parts in the images.This authenticates hypotheses (1) , (2),and (3).6. Regarding the verbal, linguistic discourses, in the majority of cases women do not take the agent role, all they do is expressing their inner feelings without taking any actions.In conjunction with social actions, the woman in both the English and the Kurdish cover magazines are represented with the mental and relational processes, indicating that women are passive, their roles are always senser, and they are never linked with any acts, all they use the power of their sexual bodies and expressing their inner to get in the society.This backs up hypothesis (3). 7. Textually and visually, the ideology of the ideal female body/beauty is mediated by several components of visual structure, including structure, gaze, angle, social distance, color, modality, information value, salience, framing, social actor and social actions.One of these concerns is how bodies are objectified and how they come to be associated with sexualized representations in order to get the viewer's attention.This reinforces the imbalanced power relationship and the male domination that are evident with different degrees in both cultures, which is reproduced by the media in MCPs.This authenticates hypothesis (1), ( 2) and (3).8.The observed correlation between the visual and linguistic representation are inconsistent; the visual analysis of each MCP depicts a model modern women, while the linguistic analysis reveals that the captions show that the women in both societies attempt to show their skills through their works and qualifications.This authenticates hypothesis (4).On the one hand, a given participant verbally declares her vision and her products, and on the other, the media provides an unrealistic encapsulation to represent her as a model beautiful women with no emphasis on her real efforts to act upon the world.this validates hypothesis (3).9.The linguistic representational strategies show that, in both cases, the women are personalized, nominated with their personal names, individualized, and sometimes genericized as a type, or objectivized through reducing her to a feature, namely beauty.This is in line with hypotheses (1), (2), and (3).

Conclusions
The following concluding remarks can be made: 1.The discourses on women in English and Kurdish MCPs have several important similarities both at the visual and at the textual levels.They both connote various ideological positions.Only minor differences are detected.2.In both languages, women are misrepresented in as much as the MCPs manipulate the visual semiotic resources to associate women with glamour and acts of seduction rather than intellectuality and professionalism.This is achieved through the ideologically borne selection of conceptual structure, gaze, angle, social distance, color, modality, information value, salient, and framing at the visual level, and through the representational strategies such as personalization, individualization, nomination, objectivation and genricisation, as well as through mental processes, relational processes, and material processes such which suggest instrumental transactions which connote passiveness at the linguistic level.3.The women , in particular with regard to the visual representation, are commodified, materialized in that they have been deployed as accessories to the MCPs in both languages in order to draw the attention of the viewer.This serves consumerism practice and the neocapitalist economic policy which of media corporations.4.MCPs implicitly legitimize and reproduce the traditional social of sex as a source of power: the visual semiotic choices foreground sexuality of the women through frontal close-up shots, especially in English MCPs, highlighting nude sensitive parts of women's body accomplished through color brightness and more light on these parts.A minor difference occurs here: due to cultural divergence, Kurdish MCPs highlight the hair and the face parts such as eyes, cheek, and the lips rather than women's body parts.5.In both cases, the visual representation is often incompatible with the linguistic representation, reinforcing the ideological underpinning that the MCPs objectify women as a decoration and consequently deploy them for marketing their business.
Figure. 2 Figure 3. EMCP2 Figure 4. KMCP1 1. Visual Analysis(KMCP1) A. the representational metafunction; KMCP1 in figure (4) represents one participant who appears to be doing nothing except touching her chin and there is also a caption ‫لە‬ ‫'دەمەوێت‬ ‫بدەم'‬ ‫نیشان‬ ‫ژن‬ ‫ی‬ ‫تواناکان‬ ‫کارەکانمەوە‬ ‫ڕێگای‬ (I want to show the abilities of women through my works).In addition, there is not a vector within the image except the woman is doing a gesture by using her hand, hence the image fits into Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006) description of conceptual processes and the social actor becomes passive.The body gesture that the woman does is the hands-on chin gesture that is generally observed when someone is thinking about a difficult problem or trying to solve a

Figure1. Visual Analysis of an Image Visual Structure of Images Compositional Interactive Representational
, p.145)These choices enable us to situate participants in the social world and to emphasize or downplay

Table 3 .Table 3 . Transitivity Analysis in EMCP1
reference has been made to what she does: to her role in the society.She has been nominated with regard to her personal name.No attention is oriented