Virginia Moreno

Virginia Moreno is a feminist. She is recognized not only as a poet but as a Philippine woman artist whose vision of art includes both aesthetics and politics. She is a poet whose works are deeply imbricated in her country’s socio-political and cultural milieu. Moreno has, however, managed to marry form, content and create texts whose polyvalence of idioms allow readers to contend with their very own historicity. She is a poet who has an interest in French Impressionism and Symbolist poetry while the rest of her generation, having been immersed in English and American Literature
The poem, "Order for Masks", is clearly talking about the different roles that the woman, who is the persona in the poem, has to portray throughout her life. It presents the woman's three masks which represent the three tasks in her life and the three faces she has to wear for the three men in her life. The first role that is illustrated is that of a sister – the woman towards her brother. As a sister, she tries to differentiate herself from her brother that is why she does things that are completely opposite or in contrast with the things her brother does. She wants to be unlike him in every possible way so to make him feel secure in his masculinity and to make him believe that she is not a threat to him. The next role mentioned is that of a daughter – the woman towards her father. As a daughter, she wants to show her father that she is the kind of woman that he expects her to be – pure, innocent and chaste, leading him to believe that she is the perfect or ideal daughter. Also, the woman is projecting to him that she is still the same child he knew and the same face he made. The last role that she plays is that of a lover – the woman towards her lover. This time, she projects herself as someone who does her best to satisfy and fulfill the needs and

wants of her partner.