IIRC body odor is caused by bacteria that eat your sweat. BO is basically bacteria poop.
So, if you curb sweating you curb BO.
Of course, you can never completely stop sweating hence the use of deodorant which masks the smell to some extent.
Also, you have different biomes on your body and, for reasons I do not understand, they stay in their respective places. So, armpits smell different than your crotch (as an example)…cuz different bacteria.
All that said…doesn’t talc have asbestos in it?
You are correct. 
Your body has two different types of sweat glands: eccrine glands, which produce the watery, salty perspiration with which we’re all familiar, and apocrine glands, which produce what I’ve seen described as “a pale milky goo.”
Eccrine sweat glands are all over your body, and is how your body cools yourself. Apocrine glands are only located in areas of your body where you tend to have wiry body hair (armpits, groin, around the nipples), and it’s believed that they play a role in sexual attraction.
However, apocrine sweat is also something that is an excellent food source for bacteria. And, under your arms (or around your groin), you have a warm environment (especially since those areas are usually clothed), which can become damp with eccrine sweat if you get hot – all of that gives bacteria an ideal place to thrive, and fart.
True, but curbing sweat is not always a good idea.
It can, but not normally. Because both come from minerals found close together, when talc is mined it may contain traces of asbestos.
When I was doing heavy chemo I had absolutely no body odor from the beasties that should have been living in my sweat glands because the wee things were all dead. Fascinating side effect [also had absolutely no zits, other than an occasional blackhead which is a build up of body oils and skin cells…]
Much as I liked the lack of body odor and zits, I would really rather not go back on chemo, thanks. [I also lost roughly 100 pounds, but I really would not like to use chemo as a diet aid!]
So, when you use powder to absorb sweat, don’t you just end up with some sort of gloppy mess all over the inside of your clothes?
Does not sound consistent with using as an aphrodisiac.
In the instance related above, the person on whom it was applied topically was not the person receiving it intranasally.
His hygiene routine in that clip doesn’t seem the least bit unusual or old fashioned to me.
Gold Bond powder is still widely popular with athletes and military, especially the medicated stuff. Go to a military training facility like in the movie, and you will see plenty of people dusting themselves in 2022 just like Sinatra was doing in 1953–especially their feet and crotch area.
Thing is, when you’re training hard like that, you don’t stop sweating after the work-out or even after the shower. You’re all clean from the shower, but you’re going to continue sweating profusely. Dusting oneself with powder doesn’t really prevent sweat, so much as it helps absorb it. It helps you feel dry and keeps your clothes dry. Most importantly, it will help prevent chafing and it stops fungus from forming on your feet and balls.
I haven’t lived in the tropics since the 1990s, but talcum powder was part of the daily routine, not as an antiperspirant, but to feel less sticky. I can’t speak for men, but most women I knew had talcum powder on their dressers and some even carried small travel-size containers in their purses.
Barbers dust a man’s neck with powder after a haircut. I don’t know, maybe women too. It’s to absorb moisture. Some men used to powder their faces with a pinkish powder to absorb moisture. I haven’t seen this for a while but I used to see it on the ‘captains of industry’, corporate big shots who stopped by a barber daily for a shave, and powder too I guess.
One thing about talcum powder that I didn’t realize, being a man… is that it was strongly implied in the marketing that talcum powder was part of a good “feminine hygiene” regimen:
Buuuut… turns out these powders can cause a marked increase in ovarian cancer 
The link says there was asbestos in it. This is not evidence that talc by itself increases the risk of cancer. Though medical gloves apparently use eg corn starch as talc is considered too toxic or irritating for that application.
As for the “gloppy mess” problem, I assume the solution is not to coat yourself in a thick layer of it, or at least to remove the excess before putting on your shirt/underwear/shoes. A thin layer of powder functions as a lubricant, for example when putting on latex gloves.
As a woman, I’ve had the back of my neck powdered, too. It also helps the beautician brush away the stray cut hairs. (Which reminds me, I’m due for a haircut.)
I’ve also used it on my inner thighs to prevent chafing, while wearing a skirt with no hose.
Modern Gold Bond is made with cornstarch as a primary ingredient. Many other cosmetic and medicinal powders use it as well, instead of, or in addition to, talc.
Some women use(d) powder if they’re feeling, ahem, not so fresh.
Well, my husband uses a light dusting of Gold Bond in his boxer-briefs, and he doesn’t seem to have an issue - but it is a very light dusting, not a huge wodge of it.
I use a classic pouf to fluff powder to my underarms, started during chemo because most deodorants and antiperspirants gave me hives [ones body changes in pretty funky and odd ways, and not everybody reacts the same. I got the hive reaction to cold, I had to use a heavy muffler over my lower face to keep my airway warm between car and home/car and hospital because my airway would close. I got lucky the first time it happened because mrAru was with me carrying my hot thermal mug of tea so I could slug it down and warm my throat up. I could draw on my arm with an ice cube and erase the hives with a warm cloth]
That said, there is the ranitidine (aka Zantac) situation, where, even though the actual substance isn’t a problem, we lack the ability to avoid having toxic stuff in the material. (In its case, it had to do with the manufacturing process.)
I suspect that isn’t true of talcum powder per se, but I could see it being a lot less economical to filter out the asbestos, or possibly that current methods don’t sufficiently remove it to avoid problems, especially when used internally.
FWIW Johnson & Johnson stopped selling talcum powder in 2020 because of the lawsuit over asbestos in talc. I do not know if they decide the brand was too damaged to continue or it was too difficult to make talcum powder free of asbestos.
On occasion, if I’m just a bit too warm in bed, and feel sticky, dousing myself in powder really does the trick. It’s very cooling just to have that coating of powder.
I was channel-surfing and caught the same scene in From Here to Eternity that piqued Johnny’s curiosity. As much as I like Fred Zinnemann’s work, he sure was weird to have Frank Sinatra dump handfuls of powder on himself, and while wearing a tank shirt at that. I wonder if Sinatra refused to appear onscreen shirtless.
Did he ever? Is there a steam room scene in Oceans Eleven or something elsewhere?
Can
Yes you will. Still the primary ingredient in J&J baby powder. My grand daughter uses a light dusting in my great grand daughter’s diaper. It’s also in my bottle of Gold Bond powder.