The penis thing is pretty hotly debated, but savagery comes pretty close to my understanding of the theory you mention. It's not a hugely different concept from some of the manosphere stuff you find today though.

Basically the idea was (it's theorized) that thinking with your dick leads to making hasty and bad decisions, but you want to be like the cool smart intellectual philosopher rhetorician dudes ruling society who are strong enough to control their urges. You want to be the civilized powerful master strategist, not the uncivilized weak-willed destructive glutton. So... because art needs to be about reality and be educational (there's no place for that creative abstract shit), we're going to de-emphasize the body part associated with urges that are difficult to control. These are powerful rational dudes afterall.

The biggest difference with modern manosphere bullshit is maybe the part where they shrunk the pps on the ripped marble dudes to make that point. Instead we get... social media statue and peacock "science" analogies.

If we had? We have sculptors. We have people making sculptures. You don't have to guess what they would make.. but yeah, it's bulges..

I think Nemesis is Roman, but probably a copy of a Greek statue. I might have chosen to forget because the "restoration" work on her head breaks my heart - but I know that's a common problem. Such a pity because the drapery is gorgeous.

Looking at this Diana/Artemis, who was much luckier than most statues by having her original head reattached, you can see how different it is. The proportions make much more sense.

Image text description below image:

Photo of a marble statue of Artemis (aka Diana), which lives at the Louvre. Artemis is mid-step reaching for an arrow in the quiver on her back. In her other hand she's pulling on the antlers of a small deer that she has caught. She's wearing a short and practical belted tunic (chiton) appropriate for hunting, functional sandals, and an equally pragmatic hairstyle with her wavy locks in an up-do. Her arms and legs are neither skinny nor super muscly, they're very average looking. But, being a goddess, she's got a tiara. Not an ostentatious tiara, a simple solid tiara. A utility tiara, if you will. And being a female goddess, you can still see her nips pushing on the intricate drapery of her chiton. She's clearly got some sex appeal carved in, but the statue is of a capable person who is independently getting shit done.

I love her because she basically looks like the kind of woman a modern conservative commentator would condemn for subverting gender roles. Also with a proportional head.

Diane de Versailles - Louvre catalogue

I wish I had both any cool ancient things and any basement to put them in. I think the oldest thing I own is maybe 100 years at best.

I think I'd be terrified to own anything much older too, conservation is hard.

It's possible that it is a more modern idea that we've attributed to being much earlier, that does happen a lot, but I'm inclined to think it's not entirely baseless.

We know for example that the nude Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles caused enough of a stir to become a tourist destination, and even she had a conveniently positioned hand covering her goods. Kore statues always had clothes on too, unlike their male counterparts.

I could maybe buy the possibility that almost all of the nude women sculptures were stolen and later destroyed, either intentionally or accidentally, but that doesn't quite work either. To not find any older nude sculptures in modern times, plus the odd detail that none of the nude ones we do have (copies, admittedly, and I don't know all the statues either) have anything other than Barbie-smooth instead of even a delicate line suggesting labia... seems odd for an art culture that progressively got more caught up with hyper realism.

They did get nuder and more realistic with time, but we've got nothing from the archaic period without at least a skirt on, usually more.