Jill Soloway Wins Emmy, Is Still Working On Toppling Patriarchy

Jill Soloway took home her first Emmy Award Sunday night, for Outstanding Director in a Comedy Series — and she used the opportunity to give a truly impassioned speech. We're not even going to try and tell you about it; it's that good and worth reading in full. We've got the whole thing, as said by Soloway, below. People ask me if it's hard to be a director and I tell them no: Life is very hard. Being a good partner, being a good mother, being a good person, is hard. Being a director is so [fucking] easy! I get to just make my dreams come true. It's a privilege, and it also creates privilege when you take women, people of color, trans people, queer people, and you put them at the center of the story — the subjects, instead of the objects. You change the world we found out. We found out! So I want to to thank you, my sweet Jeff Besos, because you changed the world. You invited me to do this thing that these people call television — but I call a revolution. I always wanted to be part of a movement: the civil rights movement, the feminist movement.

This TV show allows me to take my dreams about unlikable Jewish people, queer folk, trans folk, and make them the heroes. Thank you to the trans community for your lived lives. We need to stop violence against transgender women. And topple the patriarchy. Topple the patriarchy! This isn't the first time Soloway has let loose this particular rallying cry, of course. But with this win under her belt now maybe she'll refocus her efforts specifically on toppling the patriarchy. One step at a time, right?