Voyeurism and Ethics in Big Swiss: Greta's Secret Watch

A Covert Intimacy: Defining the Thematic Claim

In Jen Beagin’s Big Swiss, voyeurism is never a simple act of violation. The novel frames watching, listening, and secretly recording as ethically murky practices that blur the line between intimacy and exploitation. Greta Wells, a transcriptionist for a therapist named Om, listens to confidential therapy sessions and becomes obsessed with a client she dubs “Big Swiss.” Because Greta knows Big Swiss’s most intimate secrets before they ever meet, their relationship is built on an unequal foundation of knowledge. Yet the story complicates any easy condemnation: Big Swiss herself participates in a cultural practice of open, consensual looking, and Greta’s own history of trauma suggests her voyeurism is a way to feel connected without risking real vulnerability. The novel’s central ethical question is not whether voyeurism is wrong, but rather how it distorts intimacy when one party holds all the secrets—and whether any form of genuine closeness can survive such an imbalance.

The Transcriptionist’s Dirty Window (Chapters 1–2)

The foundation of Greta’s voyeurism is her job. From Chapter 1, we learn that she works from a dilapidated farmhouse, transcribing the sessions of Om’s clients. The work gives her unfiltered access to other people’s traumas, desires, and secrets—especially those of the woman she calls Big Swiss. Greta’s fixation begins with Big Swiss’s voice, which she describes as commanding and mesmerizing. By Chapter 2, Greta has recognized other clients in public by their voices alone, revealing how deeply she has internalized their private stories. The ethics of her role are shaky from the start: Om tacitly allows Greta to do the transcribing, though he occasionally edits the files (as when he stops the recording to protect Keith’s address). Greta herself admits to relishing the intimacy of her work, feeling “like a nobody, like a stranger on a train” when she realizes that Big Swiss’s direct gaze during sex is just a cultural habit, not a unique connection. Her voyeurism offers her a sense of closeness that is entirely one-sided—until she decides to cross the line and meet Big Swiss in person.

At the dog park (Chapter 6), Greta pretends to be a transcriber for journalists and lies about her name, calling herself “Regreta” before correcting it to “Rebecca.” The deception is immediate and total. She already knows Big Swiss’s history of abuse, her job as a gynecologist, her never having had an orgasm. Big Swiss, by contrast, knows only what Greta chooses to reveal. This asymmetry becomes the engine of the relationship: Greta feels powerful because she knows, yet also ashamed because her knowledge is stolen. The ethical breach is not just professional confidentiality—it is a betrayal of the trust that therapy requires. Om, by employing Greta and failing to enforce adequate boundaries, is complicit in this system of surveillance.

The Voyeur’s Affair: Looking Without Being Seen (Chapters 7–14)

As the affair develops, the novel deepens its exploration of voyeurism’s paradoxes. In Chapter 7, Greta transcribes a session where Big Swiss describes meeting a “transcriber” named Rebekah at the dog park, not realizing she is describing Greta. Greta listens, mortified and thrilled, as Big Swiss recounts their meeting to Om. This meta-layering—Greta watching Big Swiss talk about watching Greta—creates a hall of mirrors in which every act of looking is also an act of hiding. Greta is both the observer and the observed, but only she knows the full picture.

The theme of consensual looking emerges strongly in [Evidence chapter-0013-chunk-0005], during a dinner with Big Swiss and her husband Luke. Big Swiss explains the Swiss cultural habit of exchanging looks: “You simply allow yourself to be looked over. Then it’s your turn—you look over the person while they look away.” This mutual, tacit exchange contrasts sharply with Greta’s secret surveillance. Greta realizes that the same pattern occurs during sex: “I look, you look the other way; now you look while I look away.” But where Big Swiss sees harmless custom, Greta sees the very structure of their affair—a relationship built on not-seeing the truth about who the other person really is. The novel suggests that ethical voyeurism might be possible only if it is open and reciprocal; Greta’s brand, based on secreted knowledge, is inherently corrupt.

The asymmetry becomes painful in [Evidence chapter-0014-chunk-0003], when Big Swiss tells Greta, “You have more power than you think.” Greta is so caught up in her role as secret knower that she fails to recognize her own vulnerability. Meanwhile, the reader sees Greta’s escalating desperation: she scratches phantom bugs, smuggles Big Swiss’s scent on her fingers, and imagines violent scenarios involving Luke. Her voyeurism is not detached—it is an addiction that feeds on the very intimacy she steals.

The Collapse of the Secret: Consequences of Unethical Looking (Chapters 19–21)

The final act of the novel brings the ethical consequences of Greta’s voyeurism to a head. In Chapter 19, Big Swiss calls Greta to reveal that her husband Luke has been stabbed by Keith, the man who beat her years before. Big Swiss also admits she told Luke about the affair, and she accuses Greta of lacking the will to live. The conversation is a devastating inversion: Greta, who thought she was in control, is now being judged and dismissed. Her secret knowledge did not protect her from being seen as a passive, emotionally stunted partner.

In Chapter 20, during a ketamine-assisted therapy session with Om, Greta finally reveals her own secret: at thirteen, she gave her severely bipolar mother permission to commit suicide. This trauma, she realizes, is what drives her to avoid pleasure and seek out relationships where she can observe without risking real connection. Her voyeurism is a form of self-protection, a way to be near someone without being fully present. Om helps her name her inner child “Rebekah”—the same pseudonym she used with Big Swiss—suggesting that Greta has been hiding from herself as much as from others.

The novel ends not with a neat moral resolution but with small gestures of healing. In Chapter 21, Greta bewilder the bees that swarm her kitchen—a symbol of the hive she has unknowingly invaded—and then chooses to bury Sabine’s cocaine stash rather than use it. She finds solace feeding miniature donkeys, who lean against her with quiet trust. These moments suggest that ethical living requires showing up honestly, without the armor of secret watching.

Complexity and Contradiction

Big Swiss refuses to render a simple verdict on voyeurism. Greta is both a predator and a wounded person; Big Swiss is both a victim and a willing participant in the game of looking. The novel’s greatest tension is that Greta’s unethical act—listening to therapy sessions—actually enables her to understand Big Swiss on a level that no one else can. The reader, too, is implicated: we are voyeurs of the story itself, learning secrets that the characters don’t know. Beagin forces us to ask whether empathy can ever be separated from voyeurism, or whether every act of looking is, in some way, an intrusion.

Symbols of the Watching Eye

Several symbols reinforce the theme. The bees that invade Greta’s home represent both the invasive nature of her surveillance and the fragile ecology of intimacy—when one hive is robbed, chaos ensues. The vultures that circle the farmhouse suggest opportunistic predators, and Greta’s own scavenging of secrets. Piñon the dog functions as an innocent witness, always present but never judging. The farmhouse itself, with its crumbling walls and hidden stink bugs, mirrors Greta’s moral state: a decaying container that nonetheless shelters life.

Five Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Greta’s job as a transcriptionist create an inherent ethical violation, and why does Om allow it?
   Om never verifies Greta’s credentials or monitors her work. He occasionally edits files to protect sensitive client information (e.g., Keith’s address), but he otherwise treats the transcription as harmless. The novel suggests that Om’s own eccentricities and his need for help blind him to the consequences.

2. What is the significance of the Swiss cultural practice of “looking” as described in Chapter 13?
   It offers a contrast to Greta’s secret surveillance. The Swiss habit is mutual, consensual, and transient. Greta initially feels special when Big Swiss looks at her during sex, but later realizes it is just a social script—undermining her sense of unique intimacy.

3. How does Greta’s own trauma shape her voyeuristic tendencies?
   Her mother’s suicide and her involvement in it make her avoid emotional exposure. By secretly knowing others, she can feel close without risking rejection or responsibility. Om’s therapy session reveals that she has been hiding behind the mask of “Rebekah.”

4. In what ways does Big Swiss participate in her own objectification?
   She enjoys being looked at, admits to being “transparent” in her attraction, and engages in the Swiss cultural habit of direct staring. Yet she also withholds affection and controls the terms of intimacy, complicating any simple victim narrative.

5. Does the novel ultimately condemn voyeurism, or does it suggest that some forms of covert looking are necessary for empathy?
   The ending is ambivalent. Greta’s secret knowledge does not bring her happiness; it drives Big Swiss away. Yet the reader’s own voyeurism—learning Greta’s darkest secret—is what allows us to understand her. The novel leaves us to decide whether the pain of genuine openness is worth the risk.

For a deeper look at the characters, see the profiles of Greta Wells, Big Swiss / Flavia, Om, and Keith. The symbols of bees and vultures offer further insight into the novel’s ethical landscape.