Pavel Novotny

Jeans are pants, or trousers, made from denim. Mainly designed for work, they became popular among teenagers starting in the 1950s. Historic brands include Levi's and Wrangler. Today, jeans are a very popular form of casual dress around the world and come in many styles and colors, with the "blue jeans" particularly identified with the American culture, especially the American Old West. Americans spent more than $14 billion on jeans in 2004.

The jeans name comes from blu di Genoa or Bleu Genes, that literally means blue of Genoa. Jeans fabric was made in Chieri, a town near Turin (Italy), during the Renaissance and popularised around the 1500s. It was sold through the harbour of Genoa, which was the capital of an independent republic, and a naval power. The first were made for the Genoese Navy because it required all-purpose pants for its sailors that could be worn wet or dry, and whose legs could easily be rolled up to wear while swabbing the deck. These jeans would be laundered by dragging them in large mesh nets behind the ship, and the sea water would bleach them white. They were especially worn by Genoan sailors and stevedores who worked in Italy and France, and in 1860, during the Battle of Marsala, Sicily by a general named Giuseppe Garibaldi and his Italian troops.

While there is significant variation in anatomical proportions between people, there are many references to body proportions that are intended to be canonical, either in art, measurement, or medicine.

In measurement, body proportions are often used to relate two or more measurements based on the body. A cubit, for instance, is supposed to be six palms. While convenient, these ratios may not reflect the physiognomic variation of the individuals using them.

Similarly, in art, body proportions are the study of relation of human body, or in general, animal body, parts to each other and the whole. These ratios are used in veristic depictions of the figure, and also become part of an aesthetic canon within a culture.

In anatomy, an arm is one of the upper limbs of an animal. The term arm can also be used for analogous structures, such as one of the paired upper limbs of a four-legged animal, or the arms of cephalopods. In the lexicon of human anatomy, the term arm refers specifically to the segment between the shoulder and the elbow. The segment between the elbow and wrist is the forearm. However, in colloquial speech the term arm often refers to the entire upper limb from shoulder to wrist.

In primates the arms are richly adapted for both climbing and for more skilled, manipulative tasks. The ball and socket shoulder joint allows for movement of the arms in a wide circular plane, while the presence of two forearm bones which can rotate around each other allows for additional range of motion at this level.

The earliest Western theory of beauty can be found in the works of early Greek philosophers from the pre-Socratic period, such as Pythagoras. The Pythagorean school saw a strong connection between mathematics and beauty. In particular, they noted that objects proportioned according to the golden ratio seemed more attractive. Ancient Greek architecture is based on this view of symmetry and proportion. Modern research also suggests that people whose facial features are symmetric and proportioned according to the golden ratio are considered more attractive than those whose faces are not.

A famous depiction of symmetry in Michelangelo's David.Symmetry is also important because it suggests the absence of genetic or acquired defects. Although style and fashion vary widely, cross-cultural research has found a variety of commonalities in people's perception of beauty. Large eyes and a clear complexion, for example, are considered beautiful in both men and women in all cultures. Neonatal features are inherently attractive and youthfulness in general is associated with beauty.

There is evidence that a preference for beautiful faces emerges early in child development, and that the standards of attractiveness are similar across different genders and cultures.

The foundations laid by Greek and Roman artists have also supplied the standard for male beauty in western civilization. The ideal Roman was defined as tall, muscular, long-legged, with a full head of thick hair, a high and wide forehead – a sign of intelligence – wide-set eyes, a strong browline, a strong perfect nose and profile, a smaller mouth, and a strong jaw line. This combination of factors would, as it does today, produce an impressive "grand" look of handsome masculinity. Beauty ideals may contribute to racial oppression. For example, a prevailing idea in American culture has been that black features are less attractive or desirable than white features. The idea that blackness was ugly was highly damaging to the psyche of African Americans, manifesting itself as internalized racism. The black is beautiful cultural movement sought to dispel this notion. Conversely, beauty ideals may also promote racial unity. Mixed race children are often perceived to be more attractive than their parents because their genetic diversity protects them from the inherited errors of their individual parents.