In this era of "are we all being treated the same without regard to race, religion, or gender" a few questions have been raised at LSU concerning weight requirements for the Golden Girls and the Color Guard members of the LSU Band.

While the rest of the Tiger Band members only have personal appearance clauses in their student agreement to take care of the uniform. The all-female Golden Girls and Color Guard members have other personal appearance clauses including a stipulation about maintaining weight.

The policy basically reads like this and we are paraphrasing, once a  young woman has been invited to join either squad, the Color Guard or Golden Girls a measurement of her weight is taken. For the rest of the performance year during weekly weigh-ins, the girls must be that weight give or take five pounds.

Apparently, it's a long-standing policy at the university. It does reek of being unfair on the outside but maybe it really isn't. According to those close to the program, the weight restrictions have to do with the uniforms.

If you've seen the togs the Golden Girls and the Color Guard wear you can see there isn't a lot of room for expansion or reduction. The uniforms are custom fit for each young lady. Meanwhile, the marchers in the Tiger Band have a larger inventory of uniforms from which to choose and a custom fit isn't as "necessary" to the performance.

Another policy for the Golden Girls and Color Guard is the requirement of a headshot along with the application for an audition. These two units are the only two that require such a photo before the chance to audition is even granted.

Is the policy sexist? In every sense of the word it is.

Will it change? Probably not. The language may be tweaked here or there and certain requirements will become off the record but the bottom line is always going to be, are you pretty enough first, then do you actually have the skills necessary to be a high caliber performer for the squad.

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