“Too many years lost in History”: an analysis of Six! The Musical through the lens of Fourth-wave Feminism and the #MeToo Movement

Abstract

[eng] When discussing the historic representation the wives of Henry VIII have had throughout history, it is unavoidable to conclude that little is known about them apart from their connection with the king. In short, the roles of these women have been minimized to six words from a popular children’s rhyme: ‘’Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived’’. In an attempt to challenge this narrative, the British musical Six (2017), directed by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, re-writes and highlights the queens’ stories with the objective of establishing links between their mistreatments and women’s present-day context. The musical manages to do this by re-telling the queens’ stories from a perspective that distances itself from the male gaze and establishing parallels with present-day artists while creating an apparent competition between them in which the queens will crown the winner. It is my contention that Six! can be considered a feminist text with connections to fourth-wave feminism and the #MeToo Movement, as the queens narrate their stories of abuse, but also of empowerment. For this reason, the different ways in which the text relates to feminism will be discussed here in order to prove whether the musical can be considered a feminist product