News Highlights

Feminist actress Kathy Najimy: a hit at MSU

2006-04-09

By Carol Seavey, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN]

Photo by Pat Christman

Kathy Najimy, the voice of Peggy Hill on "The King of the Hill," spoke about her experiences as an actress and a feminist at Ted Paul Theatre at Minnesota State University Tuesday evening.

MANKATO â€" If women ruled the world rivers would flow with Diet Coke with lime. There would be free childcare in every work place. Oprah would be on TV all day, every day. There'd be affordable health care. And women would get a free cocktail on the way into the gynecologist.

These are just a few of the things that feminist actress Kathy Najimy listed Tuesday night during her lecture at Minnesota State University.

People of all ages packed MSU's Ted Paul Theatre to see the woman who has been the voice of Peggy Hill on TV's "King of the Hill" and performed in movies including "Sister Act" and "Hocus Pocus." Najimy is also an avid activist and she sprinkled her lecture about her life as an actress and a feminist with sarcasm and humor.

"Her words inspire people to not give up their fight for equality," said Tami Wilkins, 45, of Mankato, "and equality seems to be a dying issue."

Najimy has been a feminist since she was 11 years old. At age 14 she petitioned against her school's sexist dress code and at age 15 picketed against Bachelor's Survival class until it was call Home Economics again.

She has continued her activism throughout college and her career. Najimy has an 8-year-old daughter, which increases her concern for the world we live in.

"The threat of our freedom has grown more than ever before," she said. "I wonder if she will have the freedom to make the choices (we're fighting for)."

While performing a feminist comedy called the "Kathy & Mo Show" off-Broadway in New York, she fought for her choices. Producers of the show said people wouldn't come to a feminist comedy because it would put them off, she said.

"We won," Najimy said, "and we put 'feminist' on posters, fliers, everything."

Najimy also gave an example in which a young woman thought that her success would deter her from attracting men.

"We don't need to change our girls," she said, "we need to change our boys."

As an actress, she also spoke of the influence Hollywood has on women.

"Women have a lot of responsibility but very little power or control," including the big stars, she said. "I resent every moment a girl has spent trying to be something she's not."

After a couple sharp jabs at President Bush, a handful of audience members left, but the majority roared with laughter and the show went on.

"She was humorous," said Rachel Monen, 19, an MSU sophomore. "She had very good thoughts and views on activism and reached out to different age groups."

Najimy was the keynote speaker for Women's History Month. The lecture was sponsored by the MSU Women's Center, the Carol Ortman Perkins Lectureship Fund, the MSU Dept. of Institutional Diversity and the MSU Department of Theatre & Dance.

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