Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee Allabest. Back when we began season two of this project, we had the honor of hearing from an anonymous service woman in the U.S. Marine Corps, who alerted us to some alarming disparity among the genders in our nation's military. In the Marines, this included misfit equipment for women, dismissive

stigmas against mothers, and an enshrinement of masculinity that bordered on fanaticism.

We're so grateful to this first contributor for opening our eyes to some of the patriarchy that's

entangled in our armed forces. And now we're going

to dive even deeper into that tangle. On today's episode, we're going to hear from author and

former intelligence officer Caitlin Zavanovitch, who will help us continue unpacking the

patriarchal culture of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Caitlin's words are articulate and thoughtful, and they offer us an in-depth exploration of the manliest branch in the military, how their marketing of hyper-masculinity came to be,

and how the Corps can continue moving forward in its treatment of women, people of color,

and LGBTQIA service members to create a more inclusive military for all.

Caitlin Zavanovich is a former Marine Corps intelligence officer and a current speculative fiction writer,

with short stories in Cast of Wonders, pseudopod, and elsewhere.

She grew up in a Marine Corps family and has never lived in one place for more than three or

four years. As of this recording, she lives in Okinawa, Japan with her spouse and four loud

children, but the location of home is subject to change at any moment.

You can find her on Twitter at Kay Zavanovitch, and we're so grateful to have her joining us today.

Welcome, Caitlin.

Hello, my name is Caitlin Zavanovitch, and my pronouns are she, her. I'm excited and grateful for the

opportunity to add my story to the Breaking Down Patriarchy Project. To introduce myself, my dad was in the

Marine Corps, so I was raised moving all over the country

in the world every few years. I went to Brigham Young University and studied Middle Eastern

Studies Arabic, and then I commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps after graduation.

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