Storyteller Elizabeth Ellis presented her collection of stories, “One Size Fits Some,” in the Culp Center Ballroom on Tuesday.
Ellis began her craft of storytelling around 20 years ago when she revisited the area Storytelling Festival.
The event on Tuesday showcased a series of Ellis’ stories centering on women and body image.
The ETSU Storytelling Program, SGA 606 funding and the Women’s Resource Center sponsored Ellis’ appearance.
Ellis’ stories were poignant and engaging.
She began with a lighthearted series of stories and moved progressively toward more serious and thought-provoking ones.
The thematic spectrum of her presentation ranged from cracks about Southern culture to the problems women face with body image and the accepting of oneself.
She remarked on the changing of acceptable body styles since she was younger.
Everyone remembers the voluptuous bodies of Betty Grable, Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe.
Today’s styles require a more streamlined appearance.
Ellis quoted her mother’s comments on beauty as she was growing up: “You have to suffer to be beautiful,” and “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
These statements reflect the central idea of Ellis’ presentation that women feel pressured to fit themselves into a very narrow ideal of what a woman should be.
Rather than accepting themselves and finding their own beauty, women try to change to fit one single image of beauty through the means of diet, exercise, clothing, make-up and anything else that may alter appearance.
Ellis also remarked on the tendency to judge women based on physical appearance.
One story that was particularly telling of this tendency was one from high school where a list of girls and their best features would be showcased each week in the newspaper.
You’ll notice that no such list existed for the boys that, as Ellis put it, “categorized [people] into spare body parts.”
She ended the evening on a very serious note with stories about the obese being attacked and ridiculed for their appearance.
Ellis’ stories are very important for women and men alike to remind us that there is more depth to a human being than what can be seen on the outside.
Rather than searching for something within us to reflect society’s perception of beauty, we should find our own and learn to love and appreciate it.
As Ellis said, “There are all kinds of flowers and they’re all beautiful.

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