The Beard’s climactic scene, an oral sex act, is not as startling or fresh as McClure apparently thinks. It is a continuation of the second act curtain of Albee's Tiny Alice, in which Irene Worth, shielded from the audience by her robe, seemingly displayed her nude body to John Gielgud, who dropped to his knees before her while she uttered orgiastic cries.
2009, "Unjust and ineffective", The Economist, 6 Aug 2009:
What Ms Whitaker did is no longer a crime in Georgia. The state’s sodomy laws, which in 1996 barred oral sex even between willing spouses, were struck down by court rulings in 1998 and 2003.
2011, Catalina May, "Porn made for women, by women", The Guardian, 22 Mar 2011:
Oral sex for men can last forever, but when women's turn comes it lasts 10 seconds.
