Y’all realize I’m not arguing that the earth really is the center of the universe, just that it was a reasonable assumption to make given what ancient people could see of the universe. It was certainly more reasonable than saying the earth is the center of the solar system, which can be proven false by careful observation.
True, magazines like Life used print photos of nude men and boys while being considered a perfectly respectful publication displayed at any newstand, but avoided showing frontal nudity as much as possible. Going back some art schools would have male life models pose in a loincloth or jockstrap instead of fully nude. This is really ironic when you think about how much more acceptable male nudity was in daily life than female nudity.
The fur diaper makes zero sense, too. I mean, sure, there were European groups that fought naked or nearly so in ancient times but the armor-wearing Romans tended to take over their territories and gain control because bare skin vs. armor isn’t a good strategy.
Men can also be sexualized and objectified but due to cultural and historical reasons it’s not the same impact.
As noted above, although Conan was in his “fur diaper” on most of the Lancer covers and the Marvel comics, it wasn’t invariably so, and certainly wasn’t back at the beginning.
Here’s Gnome Press’ 1954 “Conan the Barbarian”
The earlier “The Coming of Conan” might have depicted him in a loincloth, but the next few volumes didn’t have him on the cover at all.
the 1950 “Conan the Conqueror” has him in armor, too
As does the paperback edition from 1953
1955’s “Tales of Conan” has him in a tunic
It was the Frazetta covers for Lancer that mainly gave us the fur loincloth (even when he’s in the snow, in “Conan of Cimmeria”), but not always. In “Conan the Warrior” he’s in armor again
As I’ve noted, Red Sonya dressed reasonably, to at first, as did her inspirations. Barry Windsor-Smith put her in a main shirt (with long sleeves, no less), shorts, and boots. Not a hint of cleavage. The silver dollar bikini came later.
Yeah. And in the case of the man it’s a sword, and in the case of the woman it’s her crotch.
Which quite co-incidentally, is a good number for how long civilisation has existed.
It’s worth noting, though, that the Conan stories take place some 10,000 years before the rise of the Roman Empire.
It maps a little better to the recording of history. Civilization in the sense of settled groups engaging in agriculture and having laws and hierarchy and whatnot goes millennia earlier, at least in Mesopotamia. Writing was kind of a later development.
You are correct.
And in non-Mesopotamian areas. Jericho, to name a prominent example, goes back about 11,000 years as a settled location.
All that makes a good argument for changing to the Holocene Calendar IMHO.
The current year by the Gregorian calendar, AD 2022, is 12022 HE in the Holocene calendar. The HE scheme was first proposed by Cesare Emiliani in 1993 (11993 HE),[1] though similar proposals to start a new calendar at the same date have been put forward decades earlier.[2][3]
A more entertaining take by the guys at Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell:
Well, it is off by 5000 years, more or less.
To me, it is more distressing for my remaining lapsed Catholicism that there is strong evidence that pre humans and humans controlling fire goes back about 400,000 years, and there is evidence of earlier control up to a million years in the past!
Praise Prometheus! 
…and now I’ve got more books to track down and read…
Incorrect. In reality I am personally the center of the universe.
I am the center of the universe, and so is my wife!
My cats, both of whom are the actual center of the universe, will respond when they get around to waking up.
A WWII-era USDA film called “Hemp For Victory”, about legally growing marijuana to make rope, etc. was long rumored to exist, and that rumor turned out to be fact after someone unearthed a copy.