ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author considers absurdity and exaggerated human experiences as forms of inquiry, analysis, and representation of gendered whiteness in higher education from the perspective of a transnational Desi woman in higher education in the US The lack of awareness of one’s privilege or complicity with multiple structures of oppression is an enactment of such privilege. The lack of desire to recalibrate relational and discursive ethics when one is told of their enactment of privilege is oppressive and violent. The author perspective on absurdity and exaggeration is primarily influenced by Sukumar Ray, a children’s literature author in British-colonized India. While monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s, such as The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, offered critiques of patriarchy, gendered exploitation, and fear of women’s sexuality, the fantastic beasts in Ray’s work provided a critique of colonial oppression and the complicity of the natives.
