Diego Invisible Man

Diego Garcia Kelly McDowell Visual Culture 25 March 2020 The Invisible Man:​ Weaponizing the Male Gaze The film I chose for this paper was the 2020 film, ​The Invisible Man, ​directed by​ ​Leigh Whannell. The film follows Cecilia Cass, played by Elizabeth Moss, who has recently escaped an abusive relationship with her boyfriend, Adrian. Adrian is a wealthy optics engineer who makes a suit covered in cameras that has the ability to make him invisible. He fakes his death and then uses the suit to stalk and terrorize her. Cecilia attempts to form a stable life for herself after leaving Adrian, but is interrupted by the news that he has killed himself. She refuses to believe this, but rightly thinks that it is some manipulative trick that her boyfriend has pulled on her. She then gets visits from an invisible presence, that she believes to be Adrian. She attempts to figure out the mystery behind the invisible presence. In ​The Invisible Man, ​Adrian’s​ ​use of modern technology to hunt and torture Cecilia shows the inherent abusiveness of the male gaze.

Sturken and Cartwright write about a 1960 film ​Peeping Tom, ​which follows the protagonist as he “turns his camera into an elaborate device that can kill women before a mirror so that they can witness their own terror” (Sturken and Cartwright 78). The metaphor of a camera as a weapon shows the inherent violence in the male gaze. Similarly, Adrian makes a suit out of cameras that allows him to become invisible. Adrian is able to surpass what ​Peeping Tom did with his own camera weapon and become one with the male gaze. He uses his suit to embody

the male gaze and become it. Throughout the film, Adrian is shown to be both physically and psychologically dangerous, showing that there are multiple ways that the male gaze can affect women.

By having Adrian embody the male gaze, the film is able to make the male gaze the antagonist, or the villian, of the story. Throughout the film, we watch as Cecilia is isolated from her friends and family through a series of events caused by Adrian, the climax of this being when Adrian frames Cecilia for the murder of her sister, leavig Cecilia alone and imprisoned. After she is arrested, she meets with Adrian’s brother and representative of his estate, Tom, who reveals that Adrian is, in fact, alive, and says that if she agrees to come back to Adrian, then Tom will get all of her murder charges dropped. Tom frames Adrian as a savior to Cecilia, like he’s her only option, as a way to convince her to return to the same abusive relationship she started the film in. This situation is about control, and about having power over someone else. The male gaze is able to take power away from women and objectify them. Adrian spends the entire film trying to chase after Cecilia like something he has lost. He tries to get her back, not because he loves her, but because he views her as his.

When Cecilia is sitting alone in her cell after she has been arrested, she asks why he chose her. She points out that he could have any woman, because he is wealthy and powerful, and she doesn’t understand why he chooses her (​The Invisible Man​). It’s implied that Adrian could in fact have anyone he wanted, and this makes it clear that this isn’t about Cecilia as a person, but about Adrian and his desire for having power over her. The male gaze is about having power over a woman: it doesn’t always matter who that woman is, but more so that you have that power.

Throughout the film, Cecilia talks about how she had been on birth control so she could avoid becoming pregnant with Adrian’s child. A baby would have anchored her to him, and made it harder for her to get away. It is then revealed by a doctor that Cecilia is, in fact, pregnant.

And it is later revealed by Tom that Adrian was tampering with her birth control. When she becomes pregnant, it is as though she is carrying another Adrian. The unborn baby represents Adrian’s ego and how deeply tied his ego is to Cecilia. It’s very important that he get control of her because the baby would, as Cecilia said, anchor her; it cements the power he has over her.

Toward the end of the film, Cecilia attempts to commit suicide in a bid to draw Adrian out. When he tries to stop her, she stabs him multiple times until his suit begins to glitch. When this happens, the suit becomes partially visible. Cecilia is exposing the male gaze and bringing it into the light. The film shows Cecilia fighting against something that has oppressed her for so long. At this point in the film, Adrian is publicly revealed to be alive, and his faked suicide, along with the multiple murders commited by him, have all been pinned on his brother Tom. Adrian invites Cecilia to his house for a peace dinner. Cecilia says that she will return to their relationship, but only if Adrian admits to the crimes that he committed. Adrian denies everything, but references events that only the invisible man would have known about. Cecilia then excuses herself and puts on a second invisible suit that she had hidden away in Adrian’s house earlier in the film. She reenters the room, and as Adrian picks up a knife, she uses it to slit his throat in a similar way that he had murdered her sister earlier in the film. Cecilia makes a fake distress call to 911, and walks out of sight of Adrian’s security cameras. She drops the act and then taunts him as he dies. Cecilia reclaims the male gaze as her own, taking the weapon of oppression and turning it against her oppressor. She is taking back the power that was held and

abused for so long. It is good to show Ceceilia taking back her power, and it displays a good message that you don’t need to be controlled by men.

The Invisible Man ​is a film that effectively captures the horrors of the male gaze. It modernizes and recontextualizes a classic novel and film and showcases modern technology in a way that uses it to enforce abuse and sexism. The film discusses themes such as abuse and the male gaze in a way that is uncommon for the horror genre. ​The Invisible Man ​takes these heavy subjects more seriously and talks about them in a more direct way than other horror films.

Showing Cecilia taking back the male gaze in the form of the invisible suit shows that women can overcome the male gaze and move on. This film has the potential to inspire other filmmakers to tell stories of women reclaiming the male gaze in both horror and other genres.

Works Cited The Invisible Man​. Directed by Leigh Whannell, Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Nervous Tick, Goalpost Pictures, 2020.

Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright, Eds. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009).